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.
Antibacterial wipes can also kill viruses (inasmuch as viruses are alive).
I'm always reminded of one of my hiking instructors's mantras: if it were that easy, we'd all be dead by now (as he ate a piece of food he'd dropped on the ground).
People evolved with germs. Something like SIX POUNDS of the average adult's body weight is directly attributable to bacteria. Antibacterial wipes are snake oil - they may kill some germs right where they're wiped, but you're still surrounded by bacteria and viruses inside and out. Your mouth, for example, is on average home to about 100 million individual bacteria. The germophobia we've developed as a society is really a triumph of people marketing anti-germ products.
Absolutely I agree that kids should play in the dirt to train their immune systems.
As for vaccinations, I get whatever's recommended for the place I'm going.