https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/12/28/948936133/still-disinfecting-surfaces-it-might-not-be-worth-it - https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/12/28/948936133/still-disinfecting-surfaces-it-might-not-be-worth-it

At the start of the pandemic, stores quickly sold out of disinfectant sprays and wipes. People were advised to wipe down their packages and the cans they bought at the grocery store.

But scientists have  https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/12/26/946901965/for-scientists-who-study-virus-transmission-2020-was-a-watershed-year" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(80, 118, 184); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; - learned a lot this year about the coronavirus and how it's transmitted, and it turns out all that scrubbing and disinfecting might not be necessary.

If a person infected with the coronavirus sneezes, coughs or talks loudly, droplets containing particles of the virus can travel through the air and eventually land on nearby surfaces. But the risk of  https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30561-2/fulltext" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(80, 118, 184); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; - getting infected from touching a surface contaminated by the virus is low , says  https://njms-web.njms.rutgers.edu/profile/myProfile.php?mbmid=egoldman" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(80, 118, 184); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; - Emanuel Goldman , a microbiologist at Rutgers University.

"In hospitals, surfaces have been tested near COVID-19 patients, and no infectious virus can be identified," Goldman says.

What's found is  https://www.medicinenet.com/rna_virus/definition.htm" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(80, 118, 184); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; - viral RNA , which is like "the corpse of the virus," he says. That's what's left over after the virus dies.

"They don't find infectious virus, and that's because the virus is very fragile in the environment — it decays very quickly," Goldman says.