And await further instructions.
The spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria poses a major threat to global health and food security as the use of antibiotics continue to grow. And now, a team of researchers from Quebec and France say bacteria with antibiotic-resistant genes can even spread through the clouds.
The study, published last month in the journal Science of The Total Environment, looked at samples taken from clouds at the Puy de Dôme summit, located 1,465 metres above the ground atop a dormant volcano in central France.
Analysis of the samples found anywhere between 330 to over 30,000 bacteria per millilitre of cloud water, with the average being around 8,000.
Wait, what?
The entire surface of the planet is covered with micro-organisms?
Well, fan my ass with a blowtorch. Who knew?
Bacteria, fungus and viruses have always been with us and always will be. Given the continuous stream of exaggerations and outright lies from politicians and researchers, I’ll take this newest doomsday scenario about antibiotic resistant bacteria clouds with a heavy dose of skepticism. Here’s the money shot and (likely) motivation for the research:
“Our study shows that clouds are an important pathway for antibiotic-resistance genes spreading over short and long ranges. Ideally, we would like to locate emission sources resulting from human activities to limit the dispersal of these genes,” Rossi said.”
The study being conducted by France and Quebec is another huge indication that it’s bullshit research. Would be interesting to see who funded the research.
Spot on LC. It was an “Oh, I see what this is all about” moment for me.
When they have nothing but paper straws at which to grasp…
Pure garbage research. How many times does it have to be stated: coincidence is NOT causation. It’s just another piece of marginal research by a researcher desperately seeking attention. What it shows is that any piece of garbage can pass peer review and be published in some fringe publication.
Meanwhile, away from the ivory towers and back on the farm where kids enjoy splashing in mud puddles, the quantity is 1,000,000,000 per milliliter. According to the first study that matched my search criteria:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29377174/
But who needs context? 30,000 per ml… wow. Be vewwy vewwy afwaid of the water in clouds, which may contain up to 0.00003 times as much bacteria as rural mud puddles.
Next they might discover that bacteria are in the air too! Seeing as cloud water is formed from condensed vapour instead of supplied by a rubber hose.
For shits and giggles, in our lab, we used the BART test on various samples collected at our industrial site back in the 90s. Literally every sample tested was positive for some type of bacteria. I doubt most people realize bacteria is everywhere at all times and our immune system evolved in response to these pathogens. Throwing in “antibiotic resistance” is just the newest scaremongering of the day. Expect movies, tv series and the media to repeat the new scary narrative at every opportunity.
BART™ stands for the patented biological activity reaction test. As the name implies, the test detects biological activity by looking for activities and reactions. Activities relate to growth events such as the formation of clouds, slimes, and gels. Reactions relate to the manners in which the microbes interact within the BART™ test.”
It’s not that there are bacteria in clouds, it’s not the number of bacteria in clouds, it’s that they’re antibiotic resistant bacteria. People frequently died from minor bacterial infections before the development of antibiotics, for example, King Alexander of Greece was bitten by a monkey and died and died of the resulting infection in 1919.
Antibiotic resistance is a serious problem, made worse by all the anti-bacterial cleaning products that claim to kill 99.9% of germs. The surviving 0.1% are immune to antibiotics and pass that immunity to their offspring. In time that could be a serious health hazard.
Excess use of antibiotics is causing the problem.
People soaked everything they touched in sanitizer for the first year of covid. Expect all kinds of resistant bacteria to develop.
So not actual clouds, fog on a mountain. They aren’t the same thing.
Antibiotic resistant, and that’s a problem, but UV resistant? I don’t think so.
I won’t bother wading through that Fear Porn® study, but I’d wager that they didn’t discuss how many of the nasties were viable after anything longer than a few minutes of direct sunlight. Well, maybe they discussed it in a link inside a reference in the Appendix.
BTW, when was the last time you heard of anyone developing a case of MERSA (the flesh-eating bacteria) while out hiking? I hear of it often enough, but it’s always associated with hospitals, not hiking, biking, or skiing.
Ehhhh… what do I know?
This isn’t in any way an area of expertise for me but bacteria can create biofilms that reduce or stop antibiotics from working. Finding ways to dismantle biofilms looks interesting.
Soap. The wonder-substance. Kills anything.
So, they found that water contains micro-organisms – a fact discovered in the late 1780s.
Rinse-wash-repeat.
Note the date. Froggy see froggy dew.
https://www.texastribune.org/2015/03/29/scientists-find-antibiotic-resistance-blowing-nort/
Oh, is this the new panic?
Trial balloon. They’ll have a go and see if it has legs.
Its the new Monkey Pox.
As others have said here – context, context, context.
So there are bacteria in the fog or clouds?
Okay, how many were there 10 years ago? 20 years ago? Without that context, the numbers mean nothing.
It’s like going into hysterics because X number of compromised people died from a seasonal flu. Okay, how many died last year? What is the average # for the previous 5 years?
Not referring to any specific malreporting, of course.
Without context, numbers mean very little.
Dear Gawd, will this lead to a crisis where liberal progressives attempt to lick clouds to find a cure? P.S. I have four large ladders if some libby needs one to cough- lick clouds or dirt or their lawn.
The largest, most dangerous bug, sorry, feature, laden cloud is generated in Ottawa, but unlike the winds, blows from east to west..
Talk about an ill wind!
I’m not worried because…evolution.
A month back I worked in a digester – of human waste. It was not properly cleaned and between it’s floating roof and the wall, wonderful stuff would fall down if the equipment I removed happen to glance the wall.
At one point up above, a coworker said to me, “Hey Buddy, I think that’s a hairball.”
It’s can be amusing to wretch and laugh at the same time.
Meanwhile.. in Sudan.
(Might have paywall)
https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dnaindia.com%2Fworld%2Freport-seizure-of-biological-lab-in-khartoum-a-biohazard-is-brewing-3039075
“rebel faction (RSF) has taken over the laboratory, expelled all of its staff and technicians”
“Huge stockpiles of pathogens: …which include polio, measles, Cholera, COVID, Ebola and many more.”
…”some of the strains are new and have not been studied yet.”
“absence of electricity to keep the pathogens in a controlled environment.”
“Under such circumstances, the situation is like a Damocles’ sword hanging over the world.”
Yeah, I don’t think I’m too worried if you give Bossy a shot of tetracycline.