Facing the FAQs - Oprah.com

Facing the FAQs

The Oprah Winfrey Show | January 01, 2006

Are all germs dangerous?

Do you buy industrial size bottles of Purell?

Have you continued getting yearly booster shots to prevent cooties?

Are you rubbing antibacterial soap on your hands right now?

Warning: You may find the following information to be extremely disgusting.

Scientists have found:

bacteria on the handles of doors, the toilet and the towel dispenser of public restrooms
drool from three different people on an airplane cushion
saliva from three people on the inside of a bar glass
germs usually found in feces in the back of a taxi cab
B. strep, usually found in vaginal secretions, on a movie theater seat. They say it was probably from a woman wearing a short skirt.
dangerous E. coli bacteria, most likely from fecal matter, on a pair of public headphones

And that's not all! Forensic scientists say they recently uncovered sperm mixed in a soft drink served at a neighborhood restaurant!

Despite how utterly revolting this all is, Dr. Oz says, "the vast majority of these germs are not dangerous. In fact, a lot of the secretions, if they're dry, have already lost their ability to hurt you."

"The most dangerous thing we get exposed to is spit," he says. "That's how the flu gets transmitted. It's the way that we're most commonly able to hurt each other. In fact, the human bite is the most dangerous of all animal bites because that's where we actually can hurt each other the most."

So why do we get sick more often in the winter? It's not from going out without a hat and scarf, but because we start to congregate together indoors. "When you sit in a small space with a lot of people and they start coughing on you, that's how viruses get transmitted. That's why we have a flu season in the winter.