The United States of America is the cleanest country on Planet Earth. In all of world history. Hyper-clean. No one else is even close. You have to go to a national park or certain parts of New York City to take a break from it.
We have been brought up from birth to panic at the very thought of a germ. Fanatically obsessed into a neurotic frenzy. When we had the super-bad flu season back in 2020, it didn’t surprise me that much when we had a nationwide mental breakdown.
They could have told us to stand on our heads reciting Japanese cookie recipes for an hour a day, and the majority of people would have done it without thought.
“The scientists told us to do it, and they are the experts.”
Yeah, how’d that turn out? A couple of them are about to be indicted.
I could list the entire number of germ-killing cans and bottles in my house, but it would be too big a chore for my lazy butt. Plus, math is my weak point.
A neighbor I once had years ago was a case in point. When a visitor came to her home, she would wipe the doorknob he just touched with a cloth soaked in alcohol. Then after he left, too. Even her husband. And anything else that was touched. She spent her days wiping, spraying, wiping, spraying.
“You just can’t be too careful!” she would say. Ooo-kay, Lady.
We were not always like this. Picture this. The Mayflower pilgrims sailed 66 days with 132 people. Squeezed together in a space about the size of a modest home today.
No air conditioning, no real toilet, certainly no shower or bathtub. They wore clothes that they would often wear for weeks at a time. Sometimes months.
There was no refrigerator to keep your food from getting kinda yucky. (A technical medical term.) No way to conveniently sterilize your plates and utensils.
Even as the country grew and expanded, sanitation was still nowhere near what you and I would tolerate. Germs galore. It was only small improvements from the Mayflower. People would take baths. Maybe every week or two … or three.
Surgeries were done without any sort of disinfectants (and no pain meds or anesthesia … yikes!). For many centuries without toilets, folks would use buckets, which they would pour out the windows in the cities. Out onto the streets.
It wasn’t until the 20th century that any attempt at sanitizing would be made.
The amazing thing is that most people survived. Why is that?
It’s because exposure to germs and the occasional virus caused their bodies to produce natural defenses. My old neighbor lady would be dead in hours if she showed up in Kenya or Guatemala.
Here in 2026, 75% of the world’s population lives in conditions even worse than we used to have. Why aren’t they all dead?
Years ago, the first time I went to Mexico, I had been warned not to drink any water there except bottled water. I religiously followed the rules.
Then, at a restaurant, I consumed some salad containing lettuce that had been watered and grown with that infamous water. Who would’ve thought?
My American habit of over-sanitizing everything had bit me in the rear. I came down with the plague known as “Montezuma’s Revenge” and was sicker than at any other time in my life. For a week.
On the flight back, the plane hit some terrible turbulence and the passengers were screaming. Not me. I was suffering so badly I just closed my eyes and prayed.
“Just crash this thing and take me out of my misery.”
Meanwhile, all the Mexicans drink this water day in and day out. No big deal.
Cleanliness is a wonderful thing (I’m a 2-plus-showers-a-day person myself), but the manic wiping out of all germs will kill us one day. The wrong germ will get through our pitiful defenses at the wrong time. Moderation in all things!
My wife is always insisting that I use the free sanitizer when I walk into a grocery store before touching a cart. No! Enough is enough.
If a grocery cart is going to kill me, so be it.
Thom Caraccio ([email protected]) is a retired musician and retired motion picture scenic artist living in West Palm Beach, Florida who hails from Columbus. He graduated from S.D. Lee High in 1968 and still considers Columbus his real hometown.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
