Hand washing should always be practiced at all times, not just during a flu epidemic. People take a good look around you, notice when you go shopping pick things up to check the price of food, like can goods, packages of meat, chicken, looking at the produce etc. Think about how many people touched this product? Then you push you shopping cart to your car and unload your groceries into the car and drive home. You should wash your hands as soon as you drop the groceries on the counter! ( Wash the counter right away after you put all the food away!) Don't touch anything until you wash your hands. We pick up so many germs in public more now then ever before! 

The good old days, people washed sidewalks in city's, in big city's such as New York the city ran big trucks with brushes and cleaned the streets (you will never see these trucks anymore). People just don't wash things like door knobs, elevator buttons, etc. in public places like they use too. Public places are just not clean like they use to be. (It is up to you and me to prevent diseases from spreading by washing our hands, because others are not as considerate).