This is Criminal!

I received this advertisement from a “medical supply company” that absolutely infuriated me.

First things first, the sticker shock of $299. Are you kidding me! On Amazon, I found a decent wall-mounted automatic hand sanitizer dispenser for $80, a digital thermometer for $30, and a roll of duct tape to put them together for $8. Might not be pretty, but the same device for $118 vs their sale price of $299.

What really infuriated me though is how misleading this device is.

From a pragmatic perspective, the product makes sense. In a COVID world, we need to sanitize our hands and many institutions are using temperature checks as a quick measure when allowing people into facilities such as schools, churches, community centres and malls. Two for one, good deal! Or is it?

Allow me to walk you through this:

Using the standard digital thermometer issued to our school I did a quick forehead temperature check and recorded a temperature of 97.6F, well within the normal range.

Unfortunately the device in the advertisement appears to take hand temperature. I can’t remember the last time a doctor or nurse took my hand temperature, but hey let’s give it a shot.

Using the same thermometer, I took the temperature of the back of my hand and recorded a temperature of 94.5F, over 3 degrees cooler than my forehead temperature. Put into perspective, I could have a forehead temperature of over 100 F (mild fever) and my hand would register at 97 F (within normal range). Not good.

But that’s not all! Try to remember what you learned back in high school chemistry. Alcohol (hand sanitizer) has a low boiling point which means it evaporates readily off your skin, actually cooling the surface of your skin. For giggles I applied hand sanitizer to my hand and while my hands were still wet, I took one more temperature reading from the back of my hands.

The temperature recorded on the digital thermometer was “Lo”. I’m not sure what that means, but I can only assume borderline hypothermic. This means I could have a significant fever, but this device would probably still record an average to below average temperature.

The only thing I see this device accomplishing is a false sense of security for some poor organization. Last time I checked, having a false sense of security in a potentially dangerous environment rarely yields positive results..

That’s where this becomes criminal.

Somewhere, some overworked purchaser for an organization with finite resources needs to fulfill obligations for COVID guidelines. They don’t necessarily have time to be the most informed purchaser and they need product yesterday. The company’s website looks legit enough and next thing you know these devices are set up throughout a school, church, or community centre.

Companies like this can’t be allowed to take advantage of limited budgets during a pandemic. I hope regulatory agencies have their eyes on these things and are doing their part to keep everyone honest.

In the meantime, I guess we need to remember: If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t!

Buyers Beware!