Oops! Spoke too soon!

Looks like I spoke to soon about bathroom doorknob hygiene freaks. Today's Globe and Mail gives the thumbs up to "fastidious, obsessive germophobe(s)", and finesses a link between sweaty, germ-encrusted gym equipment and necrotizing pneumonia.

The beauty of this article about fitness centre hygiene and infectious diseases is that it is completely generic. The setting for this health scare du jour could just as well have been a restaurant, library or water fountain. Any public place would do, because the writer doesn't mention any actual cases of nasty gym-acquired infections. She quotes a couple of doctors about community-associated MRSA, and name-drops SARS and necrotizing pneumonia, but there's no actual data showing a link between unhygienic workout equipment and anyone getting ill.

Slow news day?