Jason Nideffer

Background

About Jason Nideffer

Researcher studying immunology and tolerance to infectious diseases. We demonize pathogens. We think about the organisms that cause diseases like COVID or malaria as if they have a will to harm us. This bias has constrained our thinking and impacted medicine for hundreds of years. The sooner we realize that microbes don’t will to do anything, that they don’t want to harm us, the sooner we will recognize that disease can be treated without treating “infection.” Killing the organism elicits resistance - no matter how you draw it up. If you can treat a disease without imposing selective pressures on the causative organism, you can reach a more stable equilibrium and avoid engaging pathogens in a ceaseless arms race. Many are turned off by the notion of a therapy that doesn’t entail elimination of the bug, but many also don’t often consider the trillions of bacteria, viruses, and fungi already living peacefully in and on their bodies. Why not add just a few more?