FALSE: It is incorrect to say germs don’t cause disease
A tweet claiming that microorganisms do not cause disease is FALSE.
On 8 December 2022, cartoonist and podcaster Jeremy Nell tweeted: “Not one germ (including viruses) has ever been shown to cause disease”.
Nell adds that a guest on his podcast “destroyed the germ theory of disease”. Germ theory states “specific microscopic organisms are the cause of specific diseases”.
However, Nell’s assertion flies against more than 100 years of science, and the findings of some of the world’s known scientists.
Louis Pasteur “irrevocably substantiated the microbial theory of infectious diseases” in the 1870s.
Modern antiseptic techniques were developed specifically by Joseph Lister as a practical application of the Germ Theory.
Robert Koch proved the theory when he identified the microorganisms responsible for anthrax, cholera, and tuberculosis.
There is an established link between viruses and disease. Virus infection leads to disease either by replicating in a host’s body or by affecting the immune system.
Virulence, the ability of an infectious agent to cause disease, is a well-studied scientific concept, as is pathogenicity, the capacity of a microbe to cause damage in a host.
Germ theory denialism has been called a conspiracy theory by researchers and fact-checkers.
PesaCheck has examined a claim that microorganisms do not cause disease, and finds it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck climate change fact-checker Christiaan van der Merwe and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Cédrick Irakoze and acting chief copy editor Francis Mwaniki.
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck’s managing editor Doreen Wainainah.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.