Thread: At what point is sterilizing everything a negative for our immune systems?

I read this today: “A Scottish study of 300 000 households found that the more children in the household, the less likely adults are to be hospitalized with COVID-19.”

interesting correlation,

because I highly suspect that just as those with pets are proven to have stronger immune systems, so too I suspect are those with children. I mean, dealing with poop, vomit, & any other number of bodily fluids on a regular basis— a strong immune system is a necessity.

This also

makes me think about the dissolution of multi-generational homes in favor of nursing homes: when grandma doesn’t share a home/food with her grandkids, she isn’t really getting that potential benefit.
Nursing homes and elderly rehab residences tend to be sterile & isolating.

This is not to slam on nursing homes at all! My grandfather *actively wanted* a nursing home, and some families simply cannot keep up with the safety & health demands of a live-in elder.
There are absolutely benefits to them and they are a service to the world!

But the dissolution of multi-generational homes is a fairly recent phenomena, like the last century really- part & parcel of the nuclear family & American Dream and heavily romanticized sense of “independence”- but I’m digressing from my point-

There have been years of studies showing over-sanitizing and sterilizing environments would make way for a superbug.
There is a strong, COVID-specific correlation between having children in the home and having milder symptoms.
I wonder if we can’t come up with a better system

for the elderly that doesn’t shut them away from others but allows for this sort of age intermingling which is good for everyone. I think (???) some Nordic countries do this and I think they also didn’t see the same mortality rates we did in the US.

Just some thoughts, anyway.