At the risk of being considered a germaphobe, I enjoyed Bob Yesbek's "constant vigilance" column in the Jan. 5 edition. I think it is spot-on regarding contamination of publicly accessed surfaces. Everyone, including small business owners, services employees and the general public, should heed his wise advice.
His astute observations about restaurant bathroom faucet and door handle exposure was followed by sensible remediation approaches. His warnings about grocery store contamination transfer to produce, cartons, bottles, cans and self-checkout touch panels should all be heeded. I read a study of grocery store cart handles, for example, before COVID ever showed up. The invisible contaminants, body fluids and microbes they found on those handles are not to be mentioned in polite company. It's likely on those touch screens too.
So if you've ever gotten sick and miserable for several days, a week or longer and someone has not been breathing down your neck and you can't attribute it to bad food, you now know where it came from. It's so easy to avoid most of it with a moment of minimal attentive effort. Thank you, Mr. Yesbek, for bringing this up.