Doctors debate safety of their white coats

The Boston Globe reports:

The crisp white coat has long been worn to symbolize a profession — and purity. But some studies show the coats are teeming with microbes picked up in patient rooms.

Lederer, an infectious disease fellow at Harvard Medical School, wears a shirt, sleeves rolled up, convinced such attire is less likely than a coat to drag across the patient and spread infections. A few others where he works also favor the short-sleeve style.

“There is no harm in avoiding white coats,” he wrote in an online newsletter, “but there could be danger in wearing one.”

Many other doctors have no intention of abandoning the jackets. They question whether scrubs or street clothes — or bare arms, for that matter — are any cleaner, and worry the focus on attire will distract from proven safety measures, such as hand-washing.

Are the social justice warriors behind this one?