The doctors at the hospital where this happened were also doing autopsies and would often go directly from an autopsie to the delivery ward without washing their hands.
The midwives did not perform autopsies.
It was not that the midwives' hands were especially clean, it was that the Dr's hands were very contaminated.
I think once when this was posted they said doctors would see other patients and even perform autopsies then do surgeries with no hand washing between.
They weren't dealing with other sick people I imagine. Also I bet they tended spend more time with each patient since they only did one specialist task.
There was nothing rhetorical about the question. He asked a question. Rhetorical doesn't mean anything about getting to the point quickly. It means a question that doesn't need an answer.
And his question wasn't beating around the bush. He literally just asked a question. It wasn't rhetorical. Just because you say it's rhetorical doesn't make it rhetorical. Rhetorical.