Look around the room you’re in. How many terrorists do you see?
Not surprising, since only 3% of all deaths by terrorism have occurred in the West.
Which means less than that in the UK – averaged at five deaths a year according to a report.
Even less in the town you live in. And probably zero in your street.
Out of sight, out of mind
OK, now how many germs do you see?
Also none, right?
But they’re there, alright. Just too small to see .
A single cell of norovirus, everybody’s favourite cruise ship vomiting bug, is 3 microns across – a 5,000th the width of a human hair. A single cell of that other tummy bug regular, escherichia coli, is even smaller at 2 microns – the same as rhinovirus, the common cold bug.
And it only takes 10 norovirus cells, ganged up together, to infect you if they get in the right place. The kind of thing you do rubbing your skin – they scrape together, 5,000 could fit on a hair – next thing you touch your eyes or your mouth, and they’re in like Flynn.
Four hours later the cramps start – and the upchucks – and the runs. Worse than any terrorists, more like the end of the world.
And these germs are floating round you EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Everywhere you look
That doesn’t include the germs already in the room either – left behind on countertops and work surfaces, clinging to cleaning cloths and sponges, piled up on phone keypads and light switches, or just floating through the air on the tiniest breeze, waiting for you to breathe them in – lighter than dust, lighter than smoke, lighter even than oxygen particles.
Which means everything you touch, you pick up more – your hands are laden with them. And you don’t want to know what happens if you don’t wash them off when you go to the loo – most of us have such bad habits, we should be vomiting our guts out every day.
Seriously. And here’s why.
- 95% of people don’t wash their hands properly.
- 62% of men and 40% of women NEVER wash their hands after the loo.
- Only 12% of people wash their hands before eating.
But even washing our hands is not enough. Because there’s viruses and bacteria still coating everything around – still breezing along through the air.
Next thing you touch, next breath you take – and they’re at you again. And it’s luck of the draw if your immune system deals with them or not – guided by the 100 trillion or so NECESSARY bacteria that you have in your own gut.
Usually these bacteria gang up together and crowd those pesky interlopers out. But not if your system’s down – you’re stressed, you have a cold, or indigestion from eating too fast, or a headache pressing in from work piling up.
Sussing the odds
So what are your chances?
In any home there are around 8,000 different TYPES of germs hanging about – in numbers from thousands to millions. Which is how come, at any one time, that there are around 300,000 germs on EACH of your hands.
300,000 times more than the number of terrorists busting in through your bedroom window.
And make no error, some of these germs are deadly. Even norovirus, usually just a few days discomfort, hospitalises 3,000 and kills around 80 people each year – from complications with severe dehydration.
Flu bugs of course, can kill even more.
So can sepsis. Never heard of it? Get complications from a simple paper cut and your whole body goes into immune system meltdown. Annual death toll in the UK, around 44,000.
And germs can cause other complications like cancer, heart disease, stroke, respiratory or liver disorders – accounting for 150,000 deaths a year.
More dangerous than terrorists
All of which means you’re half a million times more likely to die from germs on your hands than from terrorists attacking you.
If that happens of course, there’s not much you can do. At the end of a gun, you’re basically stuck with whatever the terrorist asks for.
But germs you can fight back against – even take them out of existence altogether.
All it takes is the push of a button on a Hypersteriliser – and a fine, dry mist of hydrogen peroxide oxidises ALL virus and bacteria to nothing. No chance of any infection, everywhere around you is sterile.
The cops have nothing like that to deal with terrorists. But at five deaths a year on average from terrorist acts, there’s more of us die from bee stings.
OK, so you’re safe enough – at least from terrorists.
Just make sure your hands are clean before you do anything.
Picture Copyright: william87 / 123RF Stock Photo
Originally posted 2016-05-06 13:20:49.