Reading or watching interviews with former prisoners of war I've been struck by their sanitary conditions and diet and general health. Granted, they are in poor health because of poor diet and physical abuse, that is true.

And, they don't seem to die of all the things Mother said would get you if you didn't wash your hands. They also eat whatever moves including insects, raw, and seem to tolerate that.

I watched a special on TV regarding colds. A part of it was an interview with a British physician on a hospital ward filled with folks with severe colds. The interviewer asked him how he avoided getting colds - he hadn't had one in the 2.5 years he'd been working there.

He replied that he washed his hands constantly. The interviewer noted he hadn't washed his hands while they had been making the rounds, he answered that she hadn't turned her back yet, and the second she did he was headed for the sink.