As another user pointed out, most bacteria and other microscopic forms of life don’t really “breath” in the way we think of it. Often they just absorb oxygen from their surrounding environments.

They can be washed away, killed by chlorine (pools), or killed by salt imbalance (ocean). However it’s really hard (read near impossible) to kill them all, and even if you did they exist in our environments naturally and from other humans as well as on things we’ve touched recently. So they repopulate quickly.

There are some arguments that Sodium Laurel Sulfate kills “good” bacteria on our skin.

I’m a Demodex folliculorum and I’m currently dating a Demodex brevis so I’m somewhat of an expert. Our host is pretty gross and rarely showers which has made the real estate in this area really expensive. We’ve been trying to move to another host but the opportunity hasn’t come up yet. Anyway, to answer your question, we have scuba gear.

I wish Lemmy would grow to the point when these Reddit moments of "I’m a dermatologist, and actually…” happen as usual as they happen on Reddit.