Health official goes viral after licking finger during coronavirus briefing
A health official from Santa Clara County, Calif., has gone viral online after footage surfaced of her licking her finger shortly after advising the public not to touch their faces to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
In footage of the moment at a recent press conference, Sara Cody, who serves as the public health officer and director for Santa Clara County, could be seen telling the public at one point, “Start working on not touching your face, because one main way viruses spread is when you touch your own mouth, nose or eyes.”
Then, at a later point during the briefing when Cody began stressing the importance of “enhance cleaning of surfaces,” the health official could be seen licking her finger to turn a page while at the podium.
An edited video of the moment juxtaposing her instruction and her finger licking has racked up more than 6.25 million views since it was posted on Twitter this week.
Coronavirus instructions.
Wait for it…pic.twitter.com/WvnKBwKUtb— Rex Chapman (@RexChapman) March 4, 2020
The Hill has reached out to Cody’s office for comment.
However, Cody is not the only public official to make the mistake of touching her face while advising the public to refrain from doing so in recent weeks.
A video of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez similarly advising people against face-touching in remarks to reporters last week has also garnered nearly 136,000 views. A number social media users have noted how frequently the congresswoman touched her face throughout the clip.
.@RepAOC @AOC speaks to media on #coronavirus: “One of the key parts to preventing transmission is washing you hands and not touching your face…A mask will not protect you if you don’t wash your hands and if you continue to touch your face.” pic.twitter.com/WNmC3pLAUP
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 28, 2020
President Trump also recently claimed that he hadn’t touched his face “in weeks,” but has been called out on social media for doing so.
TRUMP: “I haven’t touched my face in weeks. It’s been weeks. I miss it.” pic.twitter.com/TUYRhQmivQ
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) March 4, 2020
Here’s President Trump on Monday during a coronavirus meeting https://t.co/yA7mJ2qjBL pic.twitter.com/kM4e4aDqdU
— Tyler Bartlam (@tylerbartlam5) March 4, 2020
The occurrences have been so frequent recently that The Washington Post created a video of more lawmakers and officials, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R); Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator; and Robert R. Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), touching their faces while urging people not to.