Stories like this have a certain nostalgic appeal to some people. Yeah, let's go back to the good ol' days when kids would play in dirt, swim in raw sewage, and

Stories like this have a certain nostalgic appeal to some people. Yeah, let's go back to the good ol' days when kids would play in dirt, swim in raw sewage, and eat random bugs they found in the bushes. Death to soap, death to the hand sanitizer, death to every artificial environment... except virtual ones! Yeah, caveman with an iPad! The problem with such nostalgic appeals is that they grossly underestimate modern science's ability to fix its own problems given enough time and resources. Immune system needs germs to practice on? What about a pill/lotion/inhaler/whatever that contains a variety of carefully selected and relatively harmless germs to give your immune system plenty of practice without risk of any life-threatening infection? You know, like a vaccine. If the hygiene hypothesis becomes well-established, every pharmaceutical company will jump into the market with "germ pills". They could become as commonplace as multivitamins (though I hope they're more effective than today's multivitamins). Sooner or later, even FDA might begin to recommend a daily dose of mild pathogens for children. Problem solved, until we cause the next problem, wash, rinse, repeat. Usually, the solution to science is more science.