By Jim Nichols

Why do we get sick sometimes but not at other times? Why do some people get sick, but others do not? Is it because some of us eat a healthier diet? Is it because some of us are more consistent with getting regular exercise? Is it because “germs” (bacteria, viruses, fungi, or another microscopic entity) invade our body and cause an infection that we identify as sickness? Is this a problem connected to our parents and ancestors? 

There is no single correct answer there; a case can be made for several causes of “sickness.”

You may not recognize it, but our country is engaged in a serious reconsideration of these questions and how they relate to what precautions and non-precautions are reasonable to take if we are concerned about our health.

One of my life’s highlights was a visit to the Louis Pasteur museum in Paris. Most fascinating were the displays of his experimental equipment including the famous “Pasteur flasks.” With these glass contraptions in the mid-1800s, Pasteur convincingly demonstrated how bacterial infections are spread. Soon, in collaboration with other experimenters including Robert Koch and others, it was proposed that microorganisms are the primary cause of infectious disease. In subsequent decades, the world of medicine developed antiseptic surgical techniques, antibiotics, and vaccines based on that premise. The role of good public sanitation systems became apparent. Scientists and non-scientists strongly adopted the germ theory of disease.

Display of experiments in Louis Pasteur Museum in Paris.

This theory does not propose that all germs are bad; indeed, most microorganisms have positive roles in nature. What the theory proposes is that certain germs can be infectious to certain people. Furthermore, in those cases it is the germ that is “really to blame” for the illness.

Ever since the germ theory was proposed and generally adopted, however, it has become clear that this is only part of the story of the genesis of individual illness. Every thoughtful human has either personally experienced or known of physical conditions that clearly are connected to genetics, environmental factors, nutrition, or individual susceptibility and responsibility. Has science identified some viruses that seem to be involved in cancers? Yes. Does smoking increase the likelihood of contracting lung cancer? Yes.

Sorting this out is not a simple consideration. There is, however, an incorrect understanding gaining momentum in the country.

This misunderstanding has become coupled with an increasing distrust of science in general and healthcare specifically. It is increasingly clear that the healthcare system developed in the twentieth century is not satisfactory today. It is unevenly distributed to a demanding public, expensive, and not as beneficial as we might wish it to be. Americans look to other developed countries and see healthcare more readily available, more satisfactory, and less expensive, though not without problems. That may not all be true, but it appears to be accurate enough to make citizens unhappy and untrusting.

COVID brought this into national focus because Americans had to pay more attention to vaccines, an important “poster child” of the germ theory. Every reader of this article has received multiple vaccines during life and those vaccines have literally extended our lifetimes. 

You may remember that there was talk during the high COVID days that these people were not dying of the virus, but because of “co-morbidities;” the people were elderly, had heart problems already, were overweight, or in some way were already weakened physically. The virus was not responsible for the deaths; the problem was that the people’s immune systems were deficient. A COVID vaccine was unnecessary.

That is false.

It is important to separate truth from falseness here. Our immune system is critical in allowing us to live successfully in a world where chemical contaminants are present in food, water, and air. No one denies that appropriate lifetime exercise makes us healthier at the time and for our future. We can do little about our age or genetic background, but we can have healthy lifestyles. 

To suggest, however, that nutritional and environmental interventions that “boost” the immune system protect us from, for example, the measles virus and therefore a measles vaccine is unnecessary and perhaps dangerous, is nonsense. 

“Germ Theory Denial” is dangerous. It suggests that infections do not pose a risk to healthy people who have well-functioning immune systems. “If you just eat right and exercise enough, vaccinations are not necessary” is not only bad science but sets an individual and a country on a negative track for future health. 

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospital chaplain