Every year, Jill Roberts sends her microbiology students out to swab the filthiest surface they can find on campus. Most of them march straight to the bathroom—and every year, they’re wrong. “You won’t believe what I found in the computer lab,” a lone student will tell her. “Oh yeah, I will,” says Roberts, a molecular epidemiologist and professor at the University of South Florida College of Public Health. The bathroom gets cleaned every day; the keyboard everyone shares does not.
That’s the key to how infectious-disease experts rank risk: The things that feel gross and the things that actually make you sick aren't always the same. It’s an oddly freeing distinction. Sort the genuine threats from the merely unpleasant ones, and a surprising amount of everyday dread will dissipate.
Here are 10 things infectious-disease experts don’t worry about.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, has a simple way of deciding where to focus his attention: “I respect air more than surfaces,” he says.
That’s especially true during respiratory virus season. Instead of constantly wiping down counters and doorknobs, he thinks about ventilation. When a large group of people comes over, for example, he cracks open a window. If the heat or air conditioning is running, he makes sure it’s bringing in outside air instead of simply recirculating what’s already in the room.
That doesn’t mean surfaces never matter. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends cleaning food-preparation surfaces with hot, soapy water—and sanitizing those contaminated by raw meat or poultry. If someone is sick, clean frequently touched surfaces first, then apply a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-registered disinfectant according to its label. But a slightly dusty coffee table isn’t where Chin-Hong directs most of his energy. Improving the air typically gives you “a bigger bang for your buck,” he says.
Washing their sheets constantly
If your weekly sheet-washing routine occasionally becomes an every-other-week routine, Roberts isn’t concerned. She regularly hears from people who are convinced their bedding needs near-constant attention. “People are like, ‘I need to wash my sheets every 15 minutes,’” she says. “No, you really don’t. Every once in a while would be great, but people are excessive with the clean things.”
For most healthy people, bedding isn’t a major source of infectious disease. Roberts would much rather see people focus on washing their hands at important times—like before eating and after using the bathroom—and handling raw food safely.
“We’re not supposed to be sterile,” she says. “People have microbes, and it’s actually healthy to have microbes on you.”
Chin-Hong doesn’t seek out soap with an antibacterial label. “I just use plain soap, because regular soap works really well,” he says.
The important part is using it—and doing so at the right times. Chin-Hong washes his hands before eating, after using the bathroom, after handling raw food, and after caring for someone who’s sick. He thinks about timing more than frequency, rather than washing or sanitizing indiscriminately throughout the day.
“It’s about habit of mind rather than using technology or fancy additives,” he says. In other words: You don’t need the bougiest bottle on the shelf. You need to remember to use the ordinary one next to the sink.
Their winter coat
The COVID pandemic left some people wondering whether everything they wore needed to go directly into the washing machine. Roberts fielded plenty of questions about items that had rarely seemed urgent before. “Do I need to wash my winter coat? Not really,” she says.
Socks are a different story: They should be washed regularly because fungi thrive in warm, damp environments. The distinction illustrates how Roberts evaluates risk. Rather than treating everything we wear as equally germy, she considers where microbes are likely to grow—and whether the item could realistically help spread them.
This one boils down to your personal risk/reward balance. To some food-safety experts, enjoying a roll of raw fish isn’t worth the risk. Dr. Heidi Torres, an infectious-disease physician and assistant professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, has plenty of colleagues who refuse to eat raw foods like sushi and beef tartare. She isn’t one of them. “They’re probably safer than me,” she says. “I love those things, and I refuse to stop eating them.”
To reduce her risk, she’s selective about where she eats them. She looks for restaurants that appear clean, have good health-department ratings, and are busy enough that ingredients aren’t sitting around for days. “I’m not gonna pick up that gas-station sushi,” she says.
Dr. Daniel Griffin, chief of the division of infectious disease at Island Infectious Disease Medical in Long Island, N.Y., takes a similar approach when he travels internationally. Despite being a parasitologist, he still wants to try the local cuisine. “Sometimes I’ll take risks I wouldn’t normally take,” he says, “but it’s to have that cultural experience.” He remains thoughtful about what he orders and how it was prepared—but he doesn’t let his expertise strip the fun out of eating.
Washing their reusable bags after every grocery trip
The tote bags living in your trunk are technically supposed to be washed, and almost nobody does it. Roberts is relaxed about that, within reason. "You grocery shop once a week? You probably don't need to wash them all that much," she says. However, it’s a different story if you shop daily, or if you skip the produce bags and let loose vegetables roll around in the tote. Then they've earned a trip through the laundry.
One reason reusable bags don’t get washed: People choose pretty ones they’re reluctant to ruin in the laundry. Roberts suggests saving those for other errands and using a plain, machine-washable tote for groceries. “If you want to save that one, don’t use it for your groceries,” she says. “Use your ugly one that you got for free, and then throw it in the laundry.” That way, if raw meat leaks or loose produce rolls around inside, you won’t hesitate to wash it.
Chin-Hong doesn’t dread getting on a plane or visiting a new part of the world. “I don’t worry about travel,” he says. What does he do instead? Prepare.
Before a trip, he makes sure he’s up to date on vaccines and learns about the specific health risks at his destination. Depending on where he’s going, that might mean packing insect repellent, taking medication to prevent malaria, or learning what food and water precautions travelers should follow once they arrive.
That advance work is what allows him to relax once he gets there. He identifies the handful of precautions that match the destination—and doesn’t spend the trip imagining everything that could go wrong.
Following a perfect phone-cleaning routine
Yes, your phone is dirty. Roberts has her students swab their own phones, and they’re routinely horrified by what grows. “We pick up things from the bathroom,” she says. “We pick up E. coli and things like that on the phone.”
Yet the experts aren’t necessarily disinfecting theirs every night. Dr. Ashley Drews, medical director of infectious diseases and system epidemiologist at Houston Methodist, readily admits she doesn’t clean hers as often as recommended. “Between you and me, I’m not that good about it,” she says. “Maybe this is one of those do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do.”
If you want to clean yours, Drews recommends removing the case and wiping both it and the phone with a not-too-wet alcohol-based wipe, then letting everything air-dry before putting the case back on. Roberts takes an even simpler approach: When the screen starts looking visibly grimy, she wipes down the entire phone. Neither one is losing sleep over missing a day.
Hand sanitizer isn’t a lazy or inferior choice in every situation. “A lot of people ask, ‘Well, can I just use the hand sanitizer?’” Roberts says. “And sure—they’re very effective.”
She keeps it within reach when soap and water aren’t convenient, especially before eating on the go. “Just pop one of those things into your bag, and hit that hand sanitizer before you pick up a hamburger,” she says.
There are exceptions. Alcohol-based sanitizer doesn’t work well against norovirus, Griffin says. If someone nearby is vomiting or has diarrhea, he makes a point of washing thoroughly with soap and water. Sanitizer also isn’t ideal when your hands are visibly dirty. But for ordinary use when you’re out and about, there’s no reason to feel guilty about reaching for it.
Eliminating every possible risk
Torres knows how easily learning about infectious diseases can send someone spiraling. “You can end up wanting to live in a bubble and never go outside—and that’s just impossible,” she says. “If you go too far down the rabbit hole, you get a little depressed.”
Her goal is to minimize risk, not eliminate it. That might mean choosing the reputable sushi restaurant, skipping the overcrowded hot tub, or washing her hands before eating. It doesn’t mean avoiding every food, destination, or activity that carries even a remote possibility of illness.
Chin-Hong thinks about risk as a continuum, rather than dividing the world into safe and dangerous. “I want to engage with the world,” he says. “I’m not afraid of most things. I just prioritize things different ways.”
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