Ben Carson Gets Roasted for Coughing Into His Hand at Coronavirus Press Conference

“Ben Carson showing us HOW NOT TO COUGH IN PUBLIC,” one user tweets

Ben Carson Cough
NBC

Surgeon turned U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson got throttled on Saturday for coughing directly into his hand during his opening remarks at a White House press conference addressing the coronavirus pandemic.

Because, as many of us know by now, that’s not the proper way to cough to avoid spreading germs, and because Carson is not just a doctor, but a brain surgeon, many Twitter users had a field day with the misstep.

“Neurosurgeon Ben Carson coughed in his hand and then placed that same hand on the podium,” one user tweeted.

“Dr. Ben Carson, neurosurgeon extraordinaire, coughing into his hands at a press conference about the coronavirus pandemic is appalling,” Cool Quit founder and CEO Eugene Gu wrote. “Doctors are supposed to be role models during a health emergency. Instead, Dr. Carson uses his platform to carelessly showcase dangerous habits.”

Another tweeted: “In a presser for coronapreparedness, Ben Carson just coughed into his hand and touched his face, un-ironically giving a demonstration on exactly what not to do.”

For those of you wondering, here are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s specific instructions for how best to cough in order “to help stop the spread of germs”:

  • Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
  • Put your used tissue in a waste basket.
  • If you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve, not your hands.

So yes, according to the CDC, Carson should not have coughed directly into his hand or, as one Twitter user put it: “Ben Carson showing us HOW NOT TO COUGH IN PUBLIC.”

Readers can see just a handful (sorry for the pun) of the reactions to Carson’s cough below.

https://twitter.com/meenaharris/status/1238885441702526976

https://twitter.com/mikereinholz777/status/1238874410120953856

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