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58. What Do Hand-Washing and Financial Illiteracy Have in Common?

Freakonomics Radio

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The Germans Had a Word for It, a Gasen Burta

Doctors carry what he called invisible cadaver particles into the maternity ward, better known to day as bacteria. Samawis ordered every medica attendant who entered the doctor's ward to submerge his hands in a chlorine wash before seeing patients. Within six months, the death rate of women in the doctor’s ward had plummeted.

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