hygiene theater en · NOUN
Etymology
From hygiene + theater, modelled after security theater.
Meanings
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(uncountable) Acts of cleaning intended more for the purpose of making an area appear safe and clear of disease-causing agents than actually achieving that aim.
It seems baffling that despite mounting evidence of [ventilation's] importance, we are stuck practicing hygiene theater—constantly deep cleaning everything—while not noticing the air we breathe.
2020 July 30, Zeynep Tufekci, “We Need to Talk About Ventilation”, in The Atlantic:[Bruce] Schneier agrees that Covid-19 has ushered in an era of hygiene theatre. “Like security theatre,” he says, “hygiene theatre comes from bad risk analysis – really, from ignorance.”
2021 July 12, Sirin Kale, “Hygiene theatre: how excessive cleaning gives us a false sense of security”, in The Guardian:The persistence of such practices has led to the advent of a derisive term — ‘hygiene theater’ — to describe rituals that appear to do little to stop the virus from spreading.
2021 April 6, Paige Winfield Cunningham, “The Health 202: Michigan is the new coronavirus hot spot. The U.K. variant is partly to blame.”, in Washington Post:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| hygiene theatre | alternative | lexicographic |