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I think it's unfair to characterize this as a layman's myth given that it was a widely quoted figure in the literature at least until 2016.

https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(16)00053-2.pdf (Are We Really Vastly Outnumbered? Revisiting the Ratio of Bacterial to Host Cells in Humans)



I guess I could have made it clearer with better wording. I didn’t mean layman’s myth as in “originated by layman” or “only quoted by laymen” but rather “commonly known to layman”.

The intent was to distinguish it from other myths in the article that are probably only known to experts. E.g., I don’t think you’ll find many layman quoting a myth about firmicutes:Bacteroidetes ratios.




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