The Yuck Factor

I saw a piece on the Today show this morning that they have totally revamped the guidelines for CPR. For nonprofessional, single-person CPR, the new recommendation is chest compressions only, 100 per minute. This is in contrast to the old guidelines, which had alternating chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth breaths, with the ratios of each varying for infants, children, and adults.

Apparently, there was a serious 'yuck factor', and I believe I heard the statistic that 80% of people trained in CPR claimed that they would not do mouth-to-mouth with a total stranger.

All I can say to this is that I cannot wait for the revolution to come, if we have really become a country where 80% of people would not risk the small chance of picking up a cold, or the incredibly miniscule chance of picking up something more serious and less treatable, to possible save the life of a fellow human being. The whole things leaves a bad taste in my mouth, pun not intended.