Saturday Stories: Hygiene Hypotheses, CIDRAP On Masks, And 3 Awful Years
tl;dr, hygiene hypothesis is BS, respirators work, and we're still in the midst of an awful plague
I’m sorry that I can’t recall who pointed me to it, but here’s a great pre-COVID piece by Megan Scudellari in PNAS debunking the hygiene hypothesis that purports rising rates of allergic and autoimmune diseases are consequent to excessive cleanliness.
No doubt you’ve read and heard much about masking this past week. I’d recommend you have a gander at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy’s Lisa M Brosseau, C. R. MacIntyre, Angela Ulrich, and Michael T. Osterholm’s thoughs on same. Great summary.
And while of late there have been some absolutely terrible takes and pieces published by the New York Times, this retrospective of the past 3 years by Jon Mooallem isn’t one of them and is well worth your attention.
Have a great weekend!
I would have loved to read Joe Mooallem's article but the NYT blocked access. It's just an opinion, but perhaps you should only include articles for your followers that we are able to read without a paywall.