Jessica, I would ask that you don't think of use of cleaning products as a bad thing. It's about common sense use of these products, including antibacterial cleaners and disinfectants. They products play a role in everyday hygiene routines -- they aren't the only means of infection control.
Please note the front page story on MSNBC right now: Soap up! The 12 germiest places in your life
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Kent, WA: What is next for you? What other current events in science do you find particularly intriguing?
Jessica Snyder Sachs: Thanks for asking. I'd love to further explore the controversial subject of vaccines: Controversial right now because of the anti-vaccine movement and its belief that childhood vaccines cause disorders such as autism … and sure to be more controversial in the future because researchers are developing vaccines that to do more than prevent infectious disease. There are vaccines in development, for example, that turn off the allergic response in an effort to cure hayfever and asthma.
This is all very exciting, but potentially dangerous… because mucking with the immune system is like poking a sleeping dragon.
At the same time, this is a tremendously promising field of study. Unlike antibiotics and sanitation—which wipe out bacteria good and bad—vaccines are discriminating. They prime our immune systems to launch a highly targeted attack against one type of disease-causing microbe, or even one strain of that microbe. And because vaccines don't spur drug resistance the way antibiotics do, I think they MAY be a longer-term solution to infectious disease. I'd love to spend time researching and reporting on this in-depth.
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Jessica Snyder Sachs: Thanks everyone. It takes fortitude to spend your lunch hour posting and reading about germs. Thanks also to Newsweek for hosting this forum. If you have further questions, please feel free to post them as feedback on my website: www.goodgermsbadgerms.com or www.jessicasachs.com. I also appreciate suggestions for new blogging topics (same web address) and feedback on the new book—Good Germs, Bad Germs: Health and Survival in a Bacterial World.
Be well. ~JSS
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