Teena has a cold, with a runny nose and a cough
Teena has a cold, with a runny nose and a cough. Her brother Rohit says take an antibiotic, it kills germs. Her sister Neha, who has read about this, says an antibiotic will do nothing for this. Who is right?
Who do you think is right? Pick one.
The answer: Neha is right
Why
Rohit is using the word the way most people do: 'germs' as one lump, antibiotics as the thing that kills them. But the tiny living things that make us ill come in very different kinds, and the two big ones, bacteria and viruses, are built so differently that no single medicine touches both. An antibiotic jams machinery that only bacteria have; a cold or flu is caused by a virus, which does not have that machinery, so the antibiotic passes through doing nothing. Worse, taking one you do not need trains the harmless bacteria you carry to survive it, so it works less well the day you truly need it. Test: a doctor treats a sore throat with an antibiotic only after a test shows bacteria; for a plain cold, never. Neha is right: antibiotics are for bacterial illness, and a viral cold is not one.
On Socho, you explain your thinking out loud and a coach asks about YOUR reasoning — one question a day, free, in Hindi, Hinglish or English.
Try a question on Socho →More disagreements in The Invisible Living World