Why Do We Refrigerate Eggs In The USA

Did you know that in other countries they don't refrigerate their eggs? I never really thought about it but then in the past couple days I came across a couple articles dealing with it. It turns out that here, and several other countries, the eggs are washed after being laid. The washing strips off a thin layer of antibacterial coating that sort of seals up and protects the contents, thus making it necessary to refrigerate. There's much more about why we refrigerate eggs from NPR.