How are we possibly still disinfecting things?

Although most people are no longer disinfecting their groceries, signs flaunting cleanliness are still all over the place. Public bathrooms tout regular spray-downs with disinfectant. Elevators advertise self-cleaning buttons. At my local Marshalls, the cashier sanitizes the credit-card reader after every use—even if I use Apple Pay! A recent issue of United Airlines’ in-flight magazine was “treated with an antimicrobial process,” according to its cover. Signs lining the queue for a Delta flight in June read, cryptically: certified by lysol pro solutions.

It’s not just the cleaning, either. Months after mask mandates have lifted and vaccine requirements have eased—meaningful interventions that do protect people—you’ll still come across QR-code menus, floor stickers placed six feet apart (has anyone ever used these correctly?), temperature screening, and hand-sanitizing stations. In 2020, The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson dubbed such measures “hygiene theater”: precautions that are far more performative than useful at stopping the spread of the coronavirus. Somehow, in 2022, the show goes on.

Some places hardly bothered with pandemic protections, theatrical or otherwise, in the first place. Among those that did, some of the pushy signs and other small measures you might still find are likely vestiges of a more cautious time—the flimsy plexiglass shield that no employee has bothered to remove, the long-empty dispenser of hand sanitizer. Perhaps in some cases, like the constant wipe-downs at Marshalls, performative cleanliness has simply become part of the employee script, like asking customers to sign up for a credit card.