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. . . I wonder if all this global sanitizing will give rise to a supergerm or several strains of supergerm . . . something far worse than Covid 19 and completely unstoppable?

thundergod 5 Aug 22
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It might already be too late, sanitizing has nothing to do with it. Nature herself is turning against us.

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This is a far larger concern with bacteria than viruses and typically happens within the body, not on surfaces. I guess the biggest hypothetical risk in this situation would be in the area of skin bacteria mutating from all the hand sanitizing.

. . . this may be true but isn't natural selection still in effect?

@thundergod As in survival of the fittest microbes? Sure, but again, surface sanitizers are far more effective at completely killing them, regardless of class. The resistance comes from improper or over use of antibiotic medicines or, to a much lesser degree, our natural immune defenses that don't completely kill the organism, and allow the surviving remnants to mutate into one that is resistant to the usual defenses. The vast majority of that action occurs within the body. Viruses, themselves, are known for rapid mutation, though thankfully this one has not yet seemed to mutate into one that is more virulent. Lots of hypotheticals are possible, but nothing about this one shows that it is probable.

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One can hope so...

Oh, I'm kidding! I'm not that heartless! Seriously, this is a valid concern.

But what else can we do? As bad as a hypothetical disease might be, it is so far just hypothetical. What we have now with COVID is real. And I don't feel like getting sick to prevent a hypothetical.

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