no, the rational mistake you're making is assuming there is a safe side to fall on, and moreover defending that position. this kind of thinking is endemic to me

no, the rational mistake you're making is assuming there is a safe side to fall on, and moreover defending that position. this kind of thinking is endemic to mediopolitical rhetoric, and it's almost always incorrect. in real world conditions, there are multifactorial risks on all sides, and it's a multidimensional optimization problem. there's just no safe side. the obessiveness over cleaning and its ill effects just being one small element in that multidimensionalism. we need to strive to make the optimal tradeoff, not the mediopolitically mediated safe choice, which we see backfire again and again in practice via unintended consequences, particularly by eroding trust in each other and our institutions, but in many other dimensions as well.