Basically, germ theory denialists take "terrain theory," which claims that it is the "terrain," not the microbes, that makes one ill and was a competing theory contemporaneous with Pasteur, and claim that it is a better explanation for infectious disease than Pasteur's.
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The main scientist promoting terrain theory was Antoine Béchamps, a respected scientist at the time, and in fairness at the time the idea that microbes arose from diseased tissue rather than causing the disease was not entirely unreasonable based on 19th century science.
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The problem, of course, is that Pasteur's theory was supported by evidence and had far more explanatory power than Béchamps' theory did. That's why it won out.
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There's an interesting similarity between creationists and germ theory deniers. Both like to point to the flaws in Darwin's theory or Pasteur's germ theory in order to justify their rejection of the theories and preference for "alternate" theories.
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Basically, both creationists and germ theory deniers like to focus on Darwin and Pasteur, as if evolutionary theory and germ theory, respectively, had been frozen in amber sometime in the late 1800s and hadn't advanced enormously since then.
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Then, of course, there are the deathbed "recantations." Both creationists and germ theory deniers have spread stories of "death bed" conversions or recantations. Darwin, it was claimed by Elizabeth Cotton in 1915 (30 years after his death), had "recanted" on his deathbed.
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Similarly, it was claimed that Louis Pasteur's last words were, "“Bernard avait raison. Le germe n’est rien, c’est le terrain qui est tout.” ("Bernard is correct. The germ is nothing. The soil is everything.")
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Claude Bernard was another scientist who, like Béchamps, believed in "terrain theory." He had described the milieu intérieur, the interstitial fluids regarded as an internal environment in which the cells of the body are nourished and maintained in a state of equilibrium.
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Of course, as I described, there is no evidence whatsoever that Pasteur said any such thing on his deathbed.https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/germ-theory-denial-in-the-age-of-the-covid-19-pandemic/ …
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Australian skeptic
@RatbagsDotCom wrote about the lie of Pasteur's "deathbed conversion" back in 2004. https://peterbowditch.com/comment/skeptic0409_pasteur.htm …1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
Anyway, germ theory denial is nothing new. It's always been part and parcel of antivaccine beliefs. Think of it this way. If microbes don't cause disease by themselves, then vaccines are not necessary. So of course antivaxxers love germ theory denial.
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Replying to @gorskon @arstechnica and
Among alternative medicine practitioners and believers, if the "terrain" is all and the germs are only a manifestation of a bad "terrain" or can only cause disease in a favorable terrain, then you can make yourself immune to disease if only you "fix" your "terrain."
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Replying to @gorskon @arstechnica and
According to alternative medicine, fixing your terrain, of course, eating the correct diet, taking the correct supplements, doing the correct things. If you do those things, according to this view, you will be virtually immune to infectious disease because of your "terrain."
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