I've never used anti-bacterials, not when it got introduced into dish-washing soap, and not when H1N1 created a ridiculous scare.
This is one of those things where I take the elitist path and my palm hits my forehead at high velocity.
Disease, illness, death, it's all a part of life, and some ridiculous washing ritual which consumes a significant portion of your daily thought process will not keep any of it at bay. I know hypochondriacs and obsessive cleaners who are sick almost year-long, who almost die every time a cold hits their town.
But it's a tough sell, living life on the edge like that. Isaac Asimov has gotten pounded these last days, but this scare is another symptom of what he predicted: Man has taken further steps away from nature. This is another aspect we fear, one the majority does not understand as anything except what kills us. Truth is, in my opinion, sickness is what keeps us alive.
> Disease, illness, death, it's all a part of life, and some ridiculous washing ritual which consumes a significant portion of your daily thought process will not keep any of it at bay.
My understanding is that washing really does help to keep these things away, and washing with soap helps more; it's not a ridiculous idea that a different kind of soap could be even more effective, and antibac soap takes no more effort than any other kind.
And I am totally in favour of making disease, illness and death be as-small-as-possible parts of life, and not parts at all, if possible.
Being overly clean leads to allergies, many people surmise, because low-level dust/pollen/allergens are never properly introduced to develop the immune system. So, there's a difference between drinking dirty water and being OCD around the house. Clearly, we want surgeons to maintain sterile operating theatres. Its not clear we need sterile environments in every walk of life (where the skin is not broken, and the immune system not already compromised...etc).
The parent is just making some typical nerd point from too much scifi or something about how we shouldn't cae much about death or something. It's HN, I guess.
Normal hand washing has saved very many lives. Regular hygiene is a miracle of medicine, and has ties with early "infographics" of Florence Nightingale's cocks-comb diagrams.
There is a not negligible chance you would have died as a child, or even an adult, from any number of diseases that used to be far more widespread. Certainly it's likely at least one person you know would have.
Modern sanitary practices have saved literally millions of people. Not hand washing alone perhaps, but it is a significant factor.
Humans now live in populations of millions of other people that are constantly in close contact with each other, and people travel more and faster than ever before all across the globe. Be thankful we haven't had more plagues.
This is one of those things where I take the elitist path and my palm hits my forehead at high velocity.
Disease, illness, death, it's all a part of life, and some ridiculous washing ritual which consumes a significant portion of your daily thought process will not keep any of it at bay. I know hypochondriacs and obsessive cleaners who are sick almost year-long, who almost die every time a cold hits their town.
But it's a tough sell, living life on the edge like that. Isaac Asimov has gotten pounded these last days, but this scare is another symptom of what he predicted: Man has taken further steps away from nature. This is another aspect we fear, one the majority does not understand as anything except what kills us. Truth is, in my opinion, sickness is what keeps us alive.