Eli5 I’ve always wonder why when you “step” in germs they don’t try to make their way to your mouth, and how is it different, when you touch your mouth with germs on your hand they know they have to go inside, but not when they’re on your elbow or leg.
In: Biology
Well, germs are really really small so going from your elbow to your mouth is like a person walking a 100 miles or so. And the germ has no idea where your mouth is in the first place.
So its actually like dropping someone in the middle of nowhere ans going “there’s a town about a 100 miles from here. Good luck” (edit: also you are blind and deaf because germs basically are.)
And when you touch your mouth they don’t *know* to go inside. Germs will multiply when the conditions are correct. You already ate them. Now they are going to multiply
Germs don’t “know” anything. They’re not sentient and have no objectives other than surviving, eating and reproducing. The insides of our bodies are extremely favorable environments for bacteria, so we have a lot of defenses to keep them out- namely, our impervious skin and immune system.
Touching your mouth or any part of your face just transfers the bacteria that are happily puttering around on your finger to that area. The mouth and eyes are notable in that they’re gateways to our insides that some bacteria could exploit to gain a foothold inside us.
I’m confused by the question. How would the germs get to your mouth from your foot? Are you sucking on your toes?
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