Preparing health professionals and the public for a flu pandemic has been the subject of much research worldwide, and governments and public health departments have published various recommendations over the past five years.1234 One aspect of the clinical management of respiratory viruses—namely barrier methods to reduce transmission—is assessed in the accompanying systematic review by Jefferson and colleagues.5 This review found that handwashing and wearing masks, gloves, and gowns were effective individually in preventing the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, and even more effective when combined (odds ratio 0.09, 95% confidence interval 0.02 to 0.35, number needed to treat (NNT)=3, 2.66 to 4.97). The incremental effect of adding virucidals or antiseptics to normal handwashing to reduce …