What about the hand sanitizers? Do they really do any good?
Yes, they do, as long as they have at least 60% alcohol. But handwashing is always best, and sanitizers do NOT kill norovirus (the stomach bug) unless you go to Amazon and buy one made specifically made to do so.
My understanding is that one should only use the alcohol based sanitizers. Bacteria do not recognize alcohol as the “enemy” so to speak and do not develop resistance to it as they do with the “anti bacterial” agents.
I read an interesting article some time back about how the Japanese are nuts about using antibacterial agents everywhere in the home and have created very resistant bacteria.