“We really should be scaling back on these precautions, especially on the steroidally boosted cleaning of surfaces,” said Lindsey Leininger, a Dartmouth College business professor who specializes in public health and runs a coronavirus information site called Dear Pandemic. “I look at all these unnecessary restrictions that degrade the customer experience and, as a vaccinated person, I’m like, ‘Why?’ ” Months after it became clear that surface contact is not a significant transmitter of the virus, Danny Pearlstein wonders why cleaning crews are still disinfecting New York City subway cars — and whether the transit system might provide better service if it weren’t spending so much on scientifically invalid measures. “They’re power-washing the outside of cars as if New Yorkers were going around licking the exterior of subway cars,” said Pearlstein, policy director of the Riders Alliance, which represents New York transit users. “It’s hygiene theater, and it has no place in the public discussion about covid now.”