I stopped by my local Giant supermarket this morning to pick up some blueberries and a couple of asagio bagels. While waiting at the U-Scan to check myself out, I notice one of the gentlemen ahead of me had covered the handle of his shopping car with Purell sanitary wipes. The first thing which went through my mind was that maybe he suffers from some sort of immune deficiency. But then I thought of an article I'd read in the
Washington Post. More and more people do seem to be developing a fear of germs. Occasionally I have seen people using Purell wipes to clean off the handles of shopping carts and for the life of me I can't understand why. It's not like you're going to catch Ebola, at least not yet, and not in this country. So you might come down with a sniffle. Sure, you may be a little uncomfortable for a couple of days, but it will pass. What's really happening is that your immune system gets a little workout, a little P90X where it gets to jump around and make noises. This is why you have an immune system. Given the choice I'd rather mine was strong and studly rather then flabby and fat. No one will come right out and say so, but I tend to believe that porky immune systems react slower. It's important to mention that I rarely get sick. For me, the worst symptom I get from a cold might be a runny nose for a couple of hours, and then it's gone. I can't ever remember catching the flu.
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| Hell in a wipe |
Now this might mean that I have a super-hero immune system. I doubt it. I just haven't bought into the continuous hype broadcast in every audio / visual medium possible. True, nobody wants to get sick, but it happens. Deal with it. I thought the bit of the article on asthma really interesting since so many people I know seem to have received that diagnosis from their family doctor. And every one of them is on some form of medication. Not that Purell Sanitizer is completely responsible. Might it not be a wolf in sheep's clothing, however? Leading you off the path? Just think of the gentleman at Giant this morning. Can you imagine what his medicine cabinet must look like? Does his OTC drug expense need to be figured into his family's budget? Do Purell sanitizing wipes disguise the gates of hell? Or are the just the beginning of an even greater addiction?
