3 ms·

ok, i looked that up. i really don't believe ppe does anything useful, i have never seen any double-blind tests that suggests it does. pseudomonas clings to the

ok, i looked that up. i really don't believe ppe does anything useful, i have never seen any double-blind tests that suggests it does. pseudomonas clings to the petri dish agar medium and will not get on your body unless you do something very silly. one way of diagnosing bacterial infections is by smell. for example, if you put your nose next to an agar plate where haemophilus influenzae is growing, you get a very characteristic smell. there are other smells. i have never heard of any microbiologist contracting an infection doing this. too much snowflake stuff here. the most scary thing that happened to me was not dealing with the bacteria, but the reagents and stains we used. i was making up some gram stain (basically iodine and NaOH in solution) when i added the water to the two solids - result steam explosion (because NaOH + H2O is exothermic) in my face. my thought was "shit, you have blinded yourself" but luckily there was an eye-wash bottle and a sink next to me, so my eyes survived. why i did this i have no idea, as i had been taught from the age of 15 to always add solids to water. anyway, so bugger bacteria - chemicals (and steam, electricity etc.) much more dangerous.

kragen 4y ago
there's a reason progress is so much slower now than it was 50 years ago, and it's not that we don't have enough scientists or enough papers
andrewflnr 4y ago
Do you believe parachutes do anything useful when jumping out of a plane? Do you have a double blind study that proves it?
- zabzonk 4y ago
  yes, i do belive that - there is clear and obvious evidence. there is no clear and obvious evidence that ppe (plastic aprons, masks) does anything. which is why we need a double blind trial. i spent all my time as a microbiologist using only a white cotton lab coat (mostly for writing nurses/docs phone numbers on) , and often not that. nobody i have ever known that worked as a microbiologist has ever caught an infection. as i said elsewhere, reasonable common sense and aseptic technique does the job.
foobar1962 4y ago
A reply this comment asked: "Do you believe parachutes do anything useful when jumping out of a plane? Do you have a double blind study that proves it?" A randomised controlled trial: https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k5094 https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k5094 Parachute use did not reduce death or major traumatic injury when jumping from aircraft in the first randomized evaluation of this intervention. However, the trial was only able to enroll participants on small stationary aircraft on the ground, suggesting cautious extrapolation to high altitude jumps.
pharrington 4y ago
the biologist from the blog post literally got the bacteria all over her arm when collecting the sample We're all human. "unless you do something very silly" is literally what the safety rules are for
lproven 4y ago
> unless you do something very silly. DO NOT LICK THE SCIENCE! For the sake of the world, please do not! https://ivanteh-runningman.blogspot.com/2021/03/can-you-lick-science.html https://ivanteh-runningman.blogspot.com/2021/03/can-you-lick...

kragen 4y ago

there's a reason progress is so much slower now than it was 50 years ago, and it's not that we don't have enough scientists or enough papers

andrewflnr 4y ago

Do you believe parachutes do anything useful when jumping out of a plane? Do you have a double blind study that proves it?

zabzonk 4y ago
yes, i do belive that - there is clear and obvious evidence. there is no clear and obvious evidence that ppe (plastic aprons, masks) does anything. which is why we need a double blind trial. i spent all my time as a microbiologist using only a white cotton lab coat (mostly for writing nurses/docs phone numbers on) , and often not that. nobody i have ever known that worked as a microbiologist has ever caught an infection. as i said elsewhere, reasonable common sense and aseptic technique does the job.

foobar1962 4y ago

A reply this comment asked: "Do you believe parachutes do anything useful when jumping out of a plane? Do you have a double blind study that proves it?" A randomised controlled trial: https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k5094 https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k5094 Parachute use did not reduce death or major traumatic injury when jumping from aircraft in the first randomized evaluation of this intervention. However, the trial was only able to enroll participants on small stationary aircraft on the ground, suggesting cautious extrapolation to high altitude jumps.

pharrington 4y ago

the biologist from the blog post literally got the bacteria all over her arm when collecting the sample We're all human. "unless you do something very silly" is literally what the safety rules are for

lproven 4y ago

> unless you do something very silly. DO NOT LICK THE SCIENCE! For the sake of the world, please do not! https://ivanteh-runningman.blogspot.com/2021/03/can-you-lick-science.html https://ivanteh-runningman.blogspot.com/2021/03/can-you-lick...