Analysis: Kissing may be is a show of love, but it can make a newborn seriously unwell and you’d feel terrible if that happened
By Primrose Freestone, University of Leicester
There is a cognitive bias called “the curse of knowledge” (sometimes also called “the curse of expertise”). It happens when you incorrectly assume that everyone knows as much as you do on a given topic. As a clinical microbiologist, I assumed everyone knew that it was a terrible idea to kiss a newborn baby anywhere on its head.
Dr Karan Raj, an NHS surgeon, recently made a TikTok video warning people of the dangers of kissing a baby and judging by the thousands of comments, this was news to many on the social media platform. Late last year, a UK charity called The Lullaby…