Add new comment

That's what evil spirits or miasma amount to. There is some truth to the old miasma idea if you reconceptualize as environmental toxicity though germs still play a role as direct vectors of disease. I really wouldn't use the term pathogens as it's a nonsensical term if you really think about it(a pathology can only be AFTER the fact). The better term would be pathogenic microorganisms which are the case after the fact due to their toxicological make up.

Germ Theory in its classical form is basically undone by the reality of microbiomes and the fact that there is commensalist and even mutually beneficial germs. What Pasteur Koch and the subsequent followers were not aware of was the reality of biological stress as discovered by Hans Selye. If you elaborate on his ideas of stress you can take it towards stress based explanations of germ contact disease activation and contagion.