Critical Focus | Tomorrow’s Germs Threaten Today’s Lifestyles
THE MICROSCOPE
2017, Volume 65:2, pp. 85–94
DOI
https://doi.org/10.59082/VZTW7117
AUTHOR
Brian J. Ford
EXCERPT
“We had an outbreak,” said the catering manager, “so when guests collect a bread roll in the future, they will have to use tongs.” And so he condemned hundreds of healthy people to risk infection that might previously have been confined to just one person, or two at most. We are living in an age of new hazards to health, yet society is not keeping up with the trends. We use yesterday’s methods to address tomorrow’s problems. New infections are waiting to pounce; people aren’t prepared, and nobody seems to mind. The use of tongs is a typical example. The rationale is clear. If you handle food while you’re infected, there is always the risk of passing on the germs to somebody else. But leaving tongs lying around for everybody to use does not prevent outbreaks — it causes them. Tongs are a dangerous source of cross-infection.