• Login
  • Register
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

Has Covid Created a Generation of Germaphobes?

by Toby Young
7 May 2023 1:00 PM

According to experts, there’s been a sharp rise in contamination-related obsessive compulsive disorder among school children since the pandemic. The Mail on Sunday has more.

“Public safety promoting social distancing and mask-wearing had a much more pronounced effect on children than most people expected,” says Dr. Zenobia Storah, a Manchester-based consultant child psychologist.

“I still regularly see children with red-raw hands from the amount of handwashing they do and kids who refuse to go to school because they’re afraid of catching something. It’s worrying because OCD can stay with them for the rest of their lives.”

The Mail on Sunday has heard from parents with children as young as three who use antibacterial handwash compulsively and avoid other children for fear of catching a virus.

Around 750,000 people in the U.K. live with OCD. Of those, an estimated 35,000 are children.

The condition can strike at any age, but it typically develops in childhood. Some are able to manage their compulsions with treatment, which usually involves regular sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy with a psychologist and, sometimes, antidepressants.

But, in half of cases, treatment fails to keep the condition under control and patients remain unable to do everyday activities such as socialising and going to work. Some sufferers struggle to even leave the house.

It is not the first time that a global health crisis has triggered a rise in contamination-related OCD.

“We’ve seen increases in contamination OCD at points where infectious diseases are in the national conversation,” says Dr. Emma Citron, a private clinical psychologist in London. “It was documented during the AIDS epidemic, along with the swine flu outbreak in 2009.

“While the behaviour of someone with OCD may be irrational, the basis of their anxiety is often genuine. But this anxiety can lead to intrusive thoughts about the worst possible outcome.

“Eventually sufferers reach a point where they believe if they touch something dirty or don’t wash their hands properly, something bad is going to happen.”

In the first six months of 2020, when Covid was rife, OCD referrals to mental health services rose significantly in several countries. And many of those who have already been diagnosed found that their symptoms either returned or got worse.

In the U.K., there was a startling rise in the condition among children. One study, carried out at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, revealed that the number of children referred to mental health services for OCD rose by more than 30% on the previous year. Meanwhile, nearly 70% of children with OCD became more unwell. The researchers noted that many reported fears of infection and contamination by Covid.

Three years on, experts are still seeing children with these fears.

Worth reading in full.

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

What is the Nigerian Government Doing With the Benin Bronzes Returned by Germany?

Next Post

American Social Justice Warriors Have a Problem – They’re Running Out of Oppressors

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

23 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Mark Nind
Mark Nind
2 years ago

The idea that exposure to dirt and bacteria is something that many avoid at all costs. I always thought that exposure to germs was a way of improving/training your immune system. I cannot see that the move to a more sterile environment will be good for mankind. I recall my children playing in the mud and putting all sorts of things in their mouths when they were toddlers. Many years on, they remain healthy and appear to be no worse for avoiding the use of hand sanitizer and wet wipes.

83
0
Dinger64
Dinger64
2 years ago
Reply to  Mark Nind

Exactly that Mark! The human body will only build an immune system against things it is exposed to, mankind has died 60 billion deaths to earn his right to exist on this planet, clean and clinical environments are not natural environments.

53
0
George L
George L
2 years ago
Reply to  Dinger64

My dear old Mum always used to come out with “you’ve got to eat a peck of dirt before you die boy.. stop moaning”..

34
0
George L
George L
2 years ago
Reply to  Mark Nind

Making too much sense there Mark..

19
0
Monro
Monro
2 years ago

We must be kind
And with an open mind
We must endeavour to find
A way-
To let the Germans know that when the war is over
They are not the ones who’ll have to pay.
We must be sweet-
And tactful and discreet
And when they’ve suffered defeat
We mustn’t let
Them feel upset
Or ever get
The feeling that we’re cross with them or hate them,
Our future policy must be to reinstate them.

Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans
When our victory is ultimately won,
It was just those nasty Nazis who persuaded them to fight
And their Beethoven and Bach are really far worse than their bite
Let’s be meek to them-
And turn the other cheek to them
And try to bring out their latent sense of fun.
Let’s give them full air parity-
And treat the rats with charity,
But don’t let’s be beastly to the Hun.

8
0
George L
George L
2 years ago
Reply to  Monro

Monro.. I’ve read plenty of your posts, some I’ve vehemently disagreed with, many I’ve taken on wholeheartedly and agreed with.. but this.. what is it with the Germans?

Have you never heard the term Perfidious Albion. Of course, the fact checkers and cleaners of the internet are now making this out to be nothing more than a meaningless trope, but it came about because of Britain’s devious/deceitful ways, especially via diplomacy. Let me say, nothings changed.

A good place to start is with WW1 and Churchill’s lust for Germany to be totally destroyed, backed up by Edward V11 no less. It was Britain and its hidden backers, not Germany, that connived and started both world wars, and now have a huge influential hand in what’s going on now, including Ukraine and the last phase in the complete destruction of Germany..

4
-12
Monro
Monro
2 years ago
Reply to  George L

This is simply my response, as a europhile, though not e.u. phile, to all germanphobes, despite their role in creating the PCR test, hopelessly, quite possibly mendaciously, misused:

‘Don’t let’s be beastly to the hun’

Last edited 2 years ago by Monro
8
0
RW
RW
2 years ago
Reply to  George L

Churchill didn’t play a major political role during WWI. Loyd-George did, however, with his idea of the knock-out blow as only acceptable war outcome which costed hundredthousands of people, at lot of them British, their lives. That was the guy who consistently (and brusquely) rejected everything which might lead to a negotiated quid-pro-quo peace.

4
0
George L
George L
2 years ago
Reply to  RW

I’m not going to debate with you via this forum, its not the place. However I’ve been thinking of some of the books I’ve read on the subject which expose the lies behind the history we’ve all been told since the event by the establishments historians.

The lies continue to this day.. including the role of Lloyd George you portray in your post

Try to get hold of a copy of Hidden History by Gerry Docherty and Jim Macgregor. Its superbly written, and the research is impeccable. There’s more but that book certainly opened my eyes to whole different perspective.

hidden-history-secret-origins-of-ww1-2132322139.jpg
7
0
Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
2 years ago
Reply to  George L

My take on WW1 is pretty much that which was expressed in Whinfrey’s Last Case (from Michael Palin’s excellent series, Ripping Yarns).

2
0
RW
RW
2 years ago
Reply to  George L

I have no idea which establishment historians told you what. My sources are mostly German and have been published between 1914 and about 1938.

0
0
George L
George L
2 years ago
Reply to  RW

Well they swallowed the wrong juice on Lloyd George and Churchill then. Pity that.. some truth from that side would have been helpful.

Perfidious Albion to the end eh!

2
-2
RW
RW
2 years ago
Reply to  George L

That’s apparently a bit difficult to understand, but neither British nor American propaganda played any actual role in continental Europe prior to 1945. Churchill did not play any important role in British politics prior to WWII. During the first world-war, he was a navy functionary responsible for the disastrous Gallipoli-expedition and later, involved with development and construction of the first tanks (as part of the landship committee).

The book you mentioned has the following marketing text associated with it (excerpt):

[…]

the guilt of the secret cabal of very rich and powerful men in London responsible for the most heinous crime perpetrated on humanity. For ten years, they plotted the destruction of Germany as the first stage of their plan to take control of the world.

[…]

Our understanding of these events has been firmly trapped in a web of falsehood and duplicity carefully constructed by the victors at Versailles in 1919 and maintained by compliant historians ever since.

One will immediately recognize the usual, current US trope of the evil billionaire globalists here. Prior to the first world war, that’s a seriously bizarre story: Nobody in Britain needed to plot taking over the world as Britain essentially ruled the world. The victors of Versailles also certainly didn’t have any influence on books like

Die geheime Vorgeschichte des Weltkrieges
Dr. Hans F. Helmolt, Leipzig, 1914
[The secret history of the run-up to the great war, Dr. (doctor) is German for PhD]

Excerpt (translated from German by me):

Every war has at least one or more hidden causes and a more or less superficial pretext. The causes of the current world war are – minus the ever-present French longing for revanche – the panislavist machinations of Russia seeking to smash Austria-Hungary and the British desire to get rid of its most successful global economic competitor, the German Empire.

[…]

The murder of the Austrian heir to the throne, archduke Franz-Ferdinand, and his wife, the duchess Sophie of Hohenberg, by Serbian terrorists in Sarajevo on the 28th of June 1914 was the pretext.

The book is generally consistent with the notion that eventually getting rid of the German competition was not-so-secret goal of British politics since about 1905 and that Edward VII was prominently involved in the diplomatic isolation of Germany prior to 1914. It just paints a more differentiated politcal picture of Europe at that time, leaves out the allusions to present-day US domestic political topics (billionaire globalists etc) and doesn’t insert Churchill into a place where he doesn’t belong because, to the US target audience of 2014, that’s an ancient British politician who must have been somehow involved with commissioning of Noah’s ark they have heard of somewhere. It’s also obviously German war propaganda, and hence, also to be taken cum grano salis.

Draconically enforced restrictions regarding what German historians must and must not publish about also didn’t come into place until after the second world war, hence, there’s also a lot of German stuff that’s guaranteed to be free from allied war propaganda published until then.

Last edited 2 years ago by RW
0
0
Jon Smith
Jon Smith
2 years ago

The late George Carlin explains this brilliantly in GERMS..

https://youtu.be/l_L6AS1Huno

And this was way before Covid!

Last edited 2 years ago by Jon Smith
11
0
George L
George L
2 years ago
Reply to  Jon Smith

Yeah.. gotta love George. My personal favourite is the American Dream.. classic, and so on the money..

8
0
DomH75
DomH75
2 years ago

Germphobia was a starting point. I see a few people use the cleaning station at Tesco, but not many. I’ve never bothered. In the early days of the scamdemic I was back living with my elderly parents (I’d moved back from London nine months earlier) so I did the handwashing when I got home from the shops as a concession to my Mum, who was worried. When I dashed up to London in the middle of the lockdowns, wearing a mask exemption lanyard, I used the alcohol hand cleaning stations, because, frankly, the Tube is filthy and always has been. I wasn’t worried about COVID-19: I suffer from stomach trouble and being able to kill the bacteria on my hands was fine by me!

However, when the second round of lockdowns and the mask mandates got going, as someone whose job became ‘work from home’ I didn’t leave the house for 18 months other than to dash up to Tesco to do click and collect for ten minutes a week. I wasn’t scared: I was too disgusted at the British public to be able to look at any of them, frankly. I accepted the confinement, because I was working sometimes seven days a week, plus had a big garden to look after. The likes of the ‘circuit breaker’ were something to spit poison about and wind up the Adam Hills and Yvonne Johnsons of the 77th Brigade mob on the Telegraph website comments, but I wasn’t aware of them particularly!

The medium to long term psychological damage is clear though: I still have to make myself leave the house, even to go for a walk. I go into Tesco again now, but it feels weird. I’m not agoraphobic, but I’ve become accustomed to staying within an environment I can feel I can control. I don’t drink, so I don’t go to pubs and there are no coffee shops where I live. I feel sense of oppression out there though, like I know the Government can remove my liberty at the stroke of a pen. I know I need to go to London to see some clients to boost my work – my local clients that I was building down here all got put out of business by the lockdowns – but I can’t motivate myself to go there. I can’t be bothered to face all the people. I know I have too snap out of it, but it’s really difficult. What I want is to move somewhere remote and rural where I can wander around on my own all day and ignore the existence of any government.

My cousin-once-removed, in her 70s, is now full-blown agoraphobic. She never leaves the house; she was prone to depression before COVID-19 and the psy-op aspect of COVID-19 has probably effed up the remainder of her life. A delightful, very sweet-natured, lady my Mum worked with years ago, now in her 40s, watched the TV obsessively during lockdowns, believed everything she was told (had to be carried from the lounge sobbing in terror by her husband after Hancock, Whitty and Vallance did their press conferences) and is desperately trying to overcome agoraphobia. Before anyone mocks her, she’s a lovely person and I would punch in the nose anyone who makes a girl like her cry: she was just particularly vulnerable to the psy-op. She’s apparently now managing to go for a walk around the block if someone goes with her.

So the germphobia in children is not something I’m surprised at. It was the primary focus of the psy-op and provided the gateway to exploit many other neuroses that may have lain dormant in vulnerable people, particularly claustrophobia and agoraphobia. And what better way to bring in 15-minute cities than create a population that suffers from germphobia, agoraphobia and a lack of drive to go anywhere? It makes it easy to close all but three airports by 2030 and abolish all commercial air travel by 2050, as well as slash car ownership.

Children of 10 years old and under have spent a significant portion of their lives under full-blown totalitarian government, their teachers have encouraged them to be afraid, have told white kids they’re oppressors, are teaching them sexual perversion and telling them that they aren’t the sex they’re born. People use ‘deprogramming’ when sorting out victims of religious cults. We need the same for our populations post-COVID-19.

56
0
George L
George L
2 years ago
Reply to  DomH75

A very interesting post. Thanks for opening up on your personal experience of that time..

18
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
2 years ago

Of course it pre-dates that period and it is tied up with misguided notions of private but it was a perfect rationale for many to go the whole hog. Best not to be angry with such people because it’s an easy mistake to make for the feeble-minded – basic sensible precautions become a search for the absolute. I have become more filthy and proud in the last few years and I see the opprtunity to soil myself as a privilege, essentially a learning experience. It’s easy to get people to become more earthy again. This neurotic tendency towards the sanitary is very superficial and doesn’t satisfy the soul at all.

13
0
True Spirit of America Party
True Spirit of America Party
2 years ago

Will today’s children, and future generations, ever forgive us?

13
0
Jon Smith
Jon Smith
2 years ago
Reply to  True Spirit of America Party

If they don’t then it’s wholly understandable
I often blame myself and my generation for letting it get this far.. The corruption at the political level is truly off the scale, a draconian authoritarian state, zero democracy a society ruined.

I should have tried harder to prevent us getting to this point..
The point of no return..

16
0
Jane G
Jane G
2 years ago

I’m not overly worried. As a piano teacher after lockdowns ended I instituted a hand-washing rule before the lessons began (as soon as I could persuade people to return and forsake the cursed Zoom) I’ve since dropped the requirement.

But I can state quite confidently that the majority of the children I see daily are as reassuringly grungy, ink-stained and sweaty as they always used to be. There will always be a neurotic few, but they would probably freak out at something else if there had not been a war on germs.

16
0
Sforzesca
Sforzesca
2 years ago

We evolved with “germs”. We need them. The number of germs inside us are in the hundreds of trillions – outnumbering our own cells by a factor of at least ten.

Just ask any expert immunologist what happens to their specially bred “germ free mice” kept in a germ free environment and fed germ free food…

Last edited 2 years ago by Sforzesca
11
0
marebobowl
marebobowl
2 years ago

Been to a gp’s office lately? No evidence of hand washing there. My husband now has a post op infection of his ear. Skin cancer removed in a filthy exam room of a “dermatology” clinic. Next thing a whopping skin infection. Cleanliness is not one of Britain’s strong points. I can tell you that after living here for 26 years.

2
-4

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

The Sceptic | Episode 46: Ofcom’s Ill-Fated Imperialism, One Year of Two-Tier Keir and Phoney Green Jobs

by Richard Eldred
1 August 2025
3

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

UK Met Office Flirts With Conspiracy Theory as it Slams Critics of Its ‘Junk’ Temperature Measuring Sites

6 August 2025
by Chris Morrison

News Round-Up

6 August 2025
by Richard Eldred

Does ‘The Village WhatsApp’ Reflect the Reality of Rising Crime Rates?

6 August 2025
by Joanna Gray

How Have We Ended Up Paying For Everything While Doing All the Work Ourselves?

6 August 2025
by Guy de la Bédoyère

Reeves Faces £50 Billion Black Hole as Tax Pressure Mounts

6 August 2025
by Will Jones

Reeves Faces £50 Billion Black Hole as Tax Pressure Mounts

37

UK Met Office Flirts With Conspiracy Theory as it Slams Critics of Its ‘Junk’ Temperature Measuring Sites

27

The EU Has Spent Over a Million Euros Fighting Online Hate Speech in South Sudan, Where Almost Nobody Has Internet Access

23

News Round-Up

20

The Government Has No Idea Who is in Britain

15

How Have We Ended Up Paying For Everything While Doing All the Work Ourselves?

6 August 2025
by Guy de la Bédoyère

UK Met Office Flirts With Conspiracy Theory as it Slams Critics of Its ‘Junk’ Temperature Measuring Sites

6 August 2025
by Chris Morrison

The Ministry of Truth? The Government, Police and Media Monitoring

5 August 2025
by Dominic Adler

Green Elites Broke Britain, Not Beijing

5 August 2025
by Ben Pile

Votes for 16 and 17 Year-Olds Will Be a Disaster for the Right

4 August 2025
by Noah Carl

POSTS BY DATE

May 2023
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  
« Apr   Jun »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

POSTS BY DATE

May 2023
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  
« Apr   Jun »

DONATE

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

UK Met Office Flirts With Conspiracy Theory as it Slams Critics of Its ‘Junk’ Temperature Measuring Sites

6 August 2025
by Chris Morrison

News Round-Up

6 August 2025
by Richard Eldred

Does ‘The Village WhatsApp’ Reflect the Reality of Rising Crime Rates?

6 August 2025
by Joanna Gray

How Have We Ended Up Paying For Everything While Doing All the Work Ourselves?

6 August 2025
by Guy de la Bédoyère

Reeves Faces £50 Billion Black Hole as Tax Pressure Mounts

6 August 2025
by Will Jones

Reeves Faces £50 Billion Black Hole as Tax Pressure Mounts

37

UK Met Office Flirts With Conspiracy Theory as it Slams Critics of Its ‘Junk’ Temperature Measuring Sites

27

The EU Has Spent Over a Million Euros Fighting Online Hate Speech in South Sudan, Where Almost Nobody Has Internet Access

23

News Round-Up

20

The Government Has No Idea Who is in Britain

15

How Have We Ended Up Paying For Everything While Doing All the Work Ourselves?

6 August 2025
by Guy de la Bédoyère

UK Met Office Flirts With Conspiracy Theory as it Slams Critics of Its ‘Junk’ Temperature Measuring Sites

6 August 2025
by Chris Morrison

The Ministry of Truth? The Government, Police and Media Monitoring

5 August 2025
by Dominic Adler

Green Elites Broke Britain, Not Beijing

5 August 2025
by Ben Pile

Votes for 16 and 17 Year-Olds Will Be a Disaster for the Right

4 August 2025
by Noah Carl

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment
Perfecty
Do you wish to receive notifications of new articles?
Notifications preferences