Mr. Bassi: "I'm surprised I caught a cold. I've been washing my hands a lot."
Dr. Grumpy: "These things can spread through the air, too."
Mr. Bassi: "Yeah, but I was hoping the washing would help me ward off anything."
Dr. Grumpy: "What do you mean?"
Mr. Bassi: "Well, they say washing hands helps prevent disease."
Dr. Grumpy: "That's true..."
Mr. Bassi: "Isn't it because water and soap boost your immune system?"
Mr. Bassi, *snerk*. I learn as much from your names as I do from your history blogs.
ReplyDeleteWard off evil spirit soap for sale.
ReplyDeleteThis is what is wrong with the educational system. Science anyone?
ReplyDeleteFirst day of school here in Oregon - welcome to the germ-fest.
My great-grandfather was a doc- learned all about germs from this guy - Lister. Glad to say that he thought that it would be reasonable and was an early adopter of such a new-fangled and controversial idea.
ReplyDelete"boosts immune system" isn't that one of the red flags of quackery?
ReplyDeletehttp://stupidevilbastard.com/2012/01/sci-ence-updates-the-red-flags-of-quackery-to-version-2-0/
Yes, soap and water do boost the immune system, but only if you ingest them.
ReplyDeleteWait ... wait ... come back! I was kidding!
And this is why kids had their mouths washed out with soap when they said bad things. It wasn't a punishment, it was a long life remedy!
ReplyDeleteOf course, it was most popular when the average lifespan was about 60...
And all he ever uses is the best antibacterial soap money can by.
ReplyDeleteGets lots of prophylactic antibiotics too, just in case that sniffle isn't the common cold.
Can't be too careful.
In the can't be too careful category, I go to church--yeah, yeah I know --you couldn't tell , Oh shut up some of us need to. But anyway, they have the peace handshake and after which some of the folks have taken to breaking out the hand sanitizer, which kind of well makes me feel like punching them out. Peace out.
ReplyDeleteThere was a report on H1N1 that it was only infective when spread through the air (ie inhaled), due to the extremely small size of the particles through which it spread. So hand washing in that scenario was not really recommended, but masks sure were.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I wash my hands compulsively around kids, but I caught every damn cold that every kid I've ever touched has ever had. The worst was a kid with some exotic overseas African Influenza A that sneezed right into my face. I was sick for three weeks after that.
@Packer: the best time to let people see you use hand sanitizer in church is right BEFORE the sign of peace, so they know you aren't trying to share your own germs!
ReplyDeleteSince I've been working as a pharmacist I rarely get sick. Rarely! And I wonder if the fact that I get tiny little exposures to sick people almost every day has allowed me build up immunity. By contrast, teachers get sick all the time by being exposed to germ-infested slobbering kids all day long during the school year.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, being a pharmacist has boosted my immune system!
as if, thats really funny and cleaver.
ReplyDelete