xxoo

In an era—perhaps just a bit more enlightened –when we are at one and the same time keenly aware of the routes and vectors of disease transmission and are beginning to understand the complexity of the micro-biomes that inhabit us and promote health and inhibit infection, it’s strange to consider the US National Pharmaceutical Society’s endorsement for this germ-chastity screen for a couple to kiss through—it also reminds me of a modern counterpart in this kiss by wire.
Much illness came about due to over-sanitary conditions and we are stronger for exposure and we benefit by cross-contamination and swapping the survivor-stories among one’s beneficial bacteria. One can even arrange a transplant procedure from a donor to rehabilitate the health of one’s gut floral that’s been compromised by diet, disease or over-medication. And like yesterday’s over-emphasis on sterility, we’re facing a similarly (probably much more dire) threat with the abuse of antibiotics which has severely dulled their efficacy, and seemingly the only thing that might rescue us until we can develop new weapons against pathogens that we’ll use responsibly (and we were warned) is our shared herd-immunity, perhaps with some unfiltered kisses.