this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2024
65 points (82.2% liked)
Science
13175 readers
92 users here now
Subscribe to see new publications and popular science coverage of current research on your homepage
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
If this also affects other bacteria and germs, wouldn't that mean people would not build up immunity to anything around them. It's reasonable for places like airports, hotels, and public spaces and subways but not "everywhere"
Possibly but it also might cause it to go into overdrive. The immune systems ultimate goal is to find things that are not you that are inside of you and remove them. An immune system with no interaction with the outside environment could be vulnerable to very mild infections or it could start to recognize parts of itself as foreign and attack itself, otherwise known as autoimmune disease. It's a complicated system that we don't fully understand, although we have a pretty good understanding.