Miriam Diamond

A few of the organisms don't die.

They become super strong, and those organisms proliferate and grow.

Those genes are able to jump to other genes, to other organisms, and promoting the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

Yeah, the bottom line is no demonstrated benefit, but great potential to cause harm.

Don't use them.

You only use biocides when it's really necessary in hospitals, in institutional settings.

We don't need them for everyday purposes in the home.

And if you do need to disinfect something,

like your hands, for example, and you use a hand sanitizer that's alcohol-based.

So the alcohol-based sanitizers don't promote antimicrobial resistance, they just kill the bugs right away.

If you've got to clean a kitchen counter, for example, you've been working with raw meat, then you use a bleach, such as a chloride-based bleach.

For other purposes, you can use other bleaches like hydrogen peroxide.

You don't need these antimicrobial products.

Yes, I completely agree with that.

For example, the notion that you would even want to sanitize your laundry.

Like, why would that be necessary?

So I do think that the COVID pandemic really, really built up sort of our fear and our resistance.

So...

Yes, I do think that the pandemic helped in a bad way.

Thank you very much.