“That’s interesting. In the past, for those of us living near the ocean, salt water was an observable protection against infections.”
That was before we had a better understanding of bacteria. Vibrio Vulnificus wasn’t even discovered and isolated until 1976, and it was largely because of improved lab equipment technologies that we started discovering that bad bugs could thrive in salt water. When my dad was in Vietnam, Army doctors told them to go swim in the surf when they got R&R time at the beach. Just as you said, they thought it would heal wounds. Now they know just how dangerous natural bodies of water are to open wounds.
Thank you. And yes, my time near the ocean was mostly during the ‘60s and before 1976.