I was talking to a medical doctor and a couple of his students, and a New York City trip is in the works, and I said I’d only been to NYC a couple of times, including when I was on Dr. Oz.

“Who’s Dr. Oz?”

“A television celebrity medical doctor.”

“Why would he call himself Dr. Oz? Does he represent all of Australia?”

Communication breakdown.

One of the students explained who Dr. Mehmet Oz was and how he was spawned from Oprah.

“Never heard of him.”

Dr. Oz released a handwashing video and it’s not bad. They got the water temperature bit right (so please, everyone else stop saying it has to be warm water, that’s just a personal preference).

They also got the soap and friction bit right.

The 20-second bit? Not so right.

So I turned to handwasher-in-chief, Don Schaffner of Rutgers University, who offered the following comments:

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration model food code says two things: In section 2-301.12 it says “warm” water must be used for handwashing.  It’s isn’t science based as far as I know.

“In section 5-202.12 it says the handwash sink must provide water at a temperature of at least 38 °C (100 °F).  Also not science based.

“The video mentions 20 seconds.  As far as I know, that’s not science based either, and while it’s a perfectly fine length of time, 30 seconds would be better, and 15 seconds would be almost as good.”