Am I overthinking swabbing? Genuine question about diminishing returns

I swab the stopper, I swab the skin, I let both dry. It adds a minute or so. Is skin swabbing actually doing anything, or is it inherited ritual? I have read that clinical practice is more relaxed about it than you would expect.

You are not overthinking it, but you are right that the two are not equally supported.

Stopper swabbing. Do it every time. Cheap, fast, and the stopper is a surface that has been sitting in a fridge collecting whatever was in the fridge. This one is not controversial anywhere.

Skin swabbing. The evidence for routine skin prep before subcutaneous injection in a clean domestic setting is genuinely weaker than most people assume, and some clinical guidance reflects that. Skin flora are largely yours and are not being introduced deep.

But — and this is why I still do it and still recommend it — the situations here are not the situation those guidelines describe. Unapproved product, non-sterile domestic environment, no clinician looking at the site afterwards, and the consequence of getting it wrong is at your own expense. The margin is worth a wipe.

Letting it dry is the part that matters most and is skipped most.

Twenty years of this: skin swabbing is the one I have relaxed about, stopper swabbing is the one I have not.

Not from principle. From having once drawn from a vial I had not swabbed, in a hurry, and then spending a fortnight watching a site far more closely than I would like to.

That is a clear split and it is not the one I expected. Thanks.