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That death
may have begun with an illness passed on from someone else.
Yet in most cases, we cannot remember when it happened.
Where we were.
Who we touched.
What we came into contact with.
Infection rarely announces itself.
It leaves no clear memory.
Every day, we move through countless spaces and touch innumerable objects.
Doorknobs. Handrails. Smartphones. Banknotes. Buttons.
Nothing about them looks dangerous.
And because nothing is visible, we lower our guard.
Pathogens do not reside only in exceptional places.
They are woven into the fabric of daily life itself.
Most routes of infection are not dramatic.
Droplets from a cough. Particles lingering in the air. And hands.
Above all, hands are the most active interface between the body and the world.
Without realizing it, we touch our faces.
Eyes. Nose. Mouth.
They are openings to the outside—and, at the same time, the easiest gateways for microorganisms.
With our own hands, we carry pathogens into our own bodies.
The act is unintentional.
The result, however, is real.
Hand washing and gargling are among the few effective countermeasures modern society has developed.
They are not rituals of cleanliness.
Nor are they attempts to eradicate microbes.
They simply reduce numbers.
And that alone can significantly alter the likelihood of disease.
Soap and water offer a physical intervention against the invisible.
Gargling lowers the microbial burden at the very earliest stage of entry.
They are not perfect defenses.
But they are fundamentally different from having none at all.
Humans often imagine themselves as rulers of the Earth.
History tells a different story.
Population shifts.
Stagnation of civilizations.
Societal collapse.
Behind each, microorganisms have played a decisive role.
Invisible beings have shaped the visible course of human history.
We do not manage microbes.
We survive under their influence.
What is invisible does not mean nonexistent.
On the contrary, invisibility grants power.
When we forget this,
we once again face deaths with no clear explanation.
And without noticing,
the next infection quietly begins.
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