WE HUMANS have every reason to be scared of germs. They are among the few things on the planet that can seriously harm our species. Lately, though, our justifiable fear seems to have been misfiring spectacularly.
Take the case of Andrew Speaker, the American with TB who was effectively told to stay in Europe and die after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention got test results suggesting he had “extensively drug resistant” (XDR) TB – the most drug-resistant form. Speaker said no thanks and flew home anyway, to a media storm. He had no symptoms, was probably…
