Germ Fair

The other morning, while enjoying the Chick's hospitality, I caught a smidge on the news that ended up just annoying me. I know, I seem to be annoyed a lot lately -- perhaps less caffeine would help.

Anyway - they had a reporter on the street with some "doctor" and they were swabbing women's purses and telling them how many bacterias were on the surface of their purses. The women were horrified to learn that tens, hundreds, and thousand of thousands of bacteria were on their purses. The reporter all but stepped away from these women and I waited for her to finally turn to the camera and announce that these purses were the modern day Typhoid Marys.

Think back to your health classes in school people. There is bacteria everywhere. Not all bacteria is bad bacteria. In fact, we kill off so many bacterias in our germaphobic ways that we actually impair our body's ability to develop weapons against the bad stuff. We've medicated ourselves with so many anti-biotics, that some illnesses have become medicine resistant.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I am a bit of a germaphobe. I assume no one washes their hands after using the loo. I always keep the paper towel from public loos to use to open the door with so that I don't end up getting the non-hand washer's germs on my clean, um, hands. I have a bottle of hand sanitizer on my desk and I carry a small one with me. But, I also realize that you can't kill every bacteria. And, you can't live your life in a bubble.

I guess I'd sum it up by saying, gee, news people -- aren't there wars or children dying of preventable diseases that would have been a more worthy story? And, people - use some common sense -- wash your hands frequently - and don't eat lunch off the bottom of your purses.