Cleaning before shots: yay or nay?

I push air into the vial before drawing. Also skip the alcohol wipe on skin, which health organizations generally agree isn't strictly necessary. Never had an issue. People really do treat injections like a whole hobby sometimes and go all in on the ritual.

Wipe the injection area with alcohol both before and after administering the shot. That single change eliminated my skin reactions completely.

Seconding that. You can grab individually wrapped alcohol wipes to carry around whenever needed. Pretty cheap too, just a few bucks for a hundred pack at most drugstores stateside.