Originally Posted by sdsearch

Three thoughts on this:

1. Many of the diseases that you'd be concerned about are viral, not bacterial. Antibacterial wipes do nothing for those.

2. There is an alternate school of thought (inspired in part by statistics like kids growing up on farms in Switzerland playing in the dirt next to the farm animals having way fewer allergies than kids brought up in sterile city environments) that a little bit of "training your immune system" with slight amounts of germs actually may protect you better than avoiding all germs at all costs (because you can't really do the latter).

3. Do you also wipe down (or otherwise always avoid touching with your hands) the handle of any public bathroom door before you exit (including on the plane but also in restaurants and at work)? That's a way bigger a source of germs than the things you mentioned wiping down. In fact, it may be worse to wash your hands, then touch the handle of the bathroom door while exiting, than to not wash your hands at all (and avoid that handle), that's how germ-prone those door handles have been found to be.