Should You Be Concerned About Germs?

Germs are everywhere. On doorknobs, key fobs, cell phones, in the air, on a plane, bus, and trolley. Most germs you will not die from, but some you can. Two New York Times articles meticulously document that our over reliance on antibiotics has led to drug –resistant bacteria that our current arsenal of antibiotics cannot address.

A lot of overuse has gotten into our food supply. When farmers treat animals with antibiotics and then slaughter them for the food chain, some sink into the food supply. And when citrus producers from Florida to California this year struggled with a super bug that turned their citrus green, their armor was to put antibiotics in the soil to treat these bugs.

Think again when you are eating an orange, tangerine, or grapefruit, it may be laced with antibiotics. I think this is a huge concern for all of us. Germs develop resistance to current antibiotics when threatened with extinction.

New super bugs are now in our hospitals and the major super bug is called Candida Auris. This is a fungus that has spread globally discreetly. Other super bugs in hospitals are called Clostridioides difficile, or C. diff. These are deadly super bugs that kill hospital patients. New York hospitals were one of the first to name facilities struggling with these super bugs.

These super bugs have spread to hospitals across the US, including California.

Just when we need the biotech and pharmaceutical industry to develop new drug resistant antibiotics, a large number of biotech firms are closing down. Pharmaceutical companies gain more profit in developing drugs for chronic diseases. Many have abandoned the development of antibiotics. This is quite alarming.



The Centers for Disease Control released statistics on November 13, 2019 that indicated “every 11 seconds someone in the US gets a resistant infection and someone dies every 15 minutes.” This is quite frightening! We need biotech firms and pharmaceutical companies to work together to fight these super bugs.

In the meantime, wash your hands often and do not touch your mouth or eyes without clean hands. I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year!! From my heart to yours....