On Cleansing Terminology, Recognizing Symbiosis, and Treating theConversation Rather Than Interrupting It. This essay presents a new, corrected understanding of bacteria and infections based on aterminological cleansing and a new theoretical framework: the glycobiological informationparadigm. I argue that the term “pathogen” is a cultural construct, not a biological reality. Allmicroorganisms in the body live in symbiosis with us—some in balance, others in imbalance.The problem arises from shifts in location, overgrowth, or variants, not from an inherent“evil.” Bacteria are functional specialists that speak the glycocode—the same language ourown cells use. Disease is understood as a communication error in this language. Antibioticsinterrupt the conversation without repairing the error, which explains the recurrent infectionsfollowing treatment. Instead, I propose glycan-based interventions (such as mannose againstE. coli) that correct the communication—to speak back to the system in its own language.The essay concludes with an invitation to see infections for what they are: not externalattacks, but an incompatible communication variant between symbiont and host.
Lars H. Hasselby (Wed,) studied this question.