10 Things Infectious-Disease Experts Don’t Worry About

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.Disinfecting every surfaceDr. 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, h...