Pete Hegseth, the host of Fox News, one of the largest television channels in the U.S., said that he hasn’t washed his hands for 10 years.
Hegseth, who graduated in 2003 from Princeton University and then obtained his master's degree from Harvard University, said that he thinks micro-organisms do not exist because they could not be seen with naked eye.
Hegseth specified that he decided to disclose what he says off air on live TV as a New Year resolution. Therefore, after co-host Ed Henry and Jedediah Bila joked with him about eating leftover pizza, he stated, “I inoculate myself.”
Hegseth's statements were met with both support and criticism. On the one hand, some social media users supported him saying that germs were overrated, whereas others opposed him asking if he’d like someone who didn’t wash their hands to prepare his meal at a restaurant.
Hgseth later told USA Today that his comments were meant to be a “joke.”
‘’We live in a society where people walk around with bottles of Purell (hand sanitizer) in their pockets, and they sanitize 19,000 times a day as if that's going to save their life’’ he added.
‘’I take care of myself and all that, but I don't obsess over everything all the time.’’
In response to the public reaction, he said that people took things so ‘’literally and seriously’’ which lead their heads to explode.
According to US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, regular hand washing "is one of the best ways to remove germs, avoid getting sick, and prevent the spread of germs to others".
U.S. President Donald Trump has also admitted many times to being extremely obsessed with microbes.
In his 1997 book, The Art of the Comeback, Trump wrote, ‘’One of the curses of American society is the simple act of shaking hands, and the more successful and famous one becomes the worse this terrible custom seems to get.’’
