Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Germ theory

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?"


13 comments:

amy said...

Mr. Bassi, *snerk*. I learn as much from your names as I do from your history blogs.

Packer said...

Ward off evil spirit soap for sale.

Anonymous said...

This is what is wrong with the educational system. Science anyone?
First day of school here in Oregon - welcome to the germ-fest.

Just Me said...

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.

Wendy said...

"boosts immune system" isn't that one of the red flags of quackery?
http://stupidevilbastard.com/2012/01/sci-ence-updates-the-red-flags-of-quackery-to-version-2-0/

Anonymous said...

Yes, soap and water do boost the immune system, but only if you ingest them.

Wait ... wait ... come back! I was kidding!

Moose said...

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!

Of course, it was most popular when the average lifespan was about 60...

Jenn said...

And all he ever uses is the best antibacterial soap money can by.

Gets lots of prophylactic antibiotics too, just in case that sniffle isn't the common cold.

Can't be too careful.

Packer said...

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.

Aeris said...

There 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.
Also, 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.

Anonymous said...

@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!

Crazy RxMan said...

Since 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.

Therefore, being a pharmacist has boosted my immune system!

grumpy but gorgeous said...

as if, thats really funny and cleaver.

 
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