A lot has happened over the past year, so you can be forgiven for not having a clear memory of what some of the major concerns were at the beginning of the pandemic. One of the major concerns was the role that surfaces played in the transmission of the virus. As an epidemiologist, I remember spending countless hours responding to media requests answering questions along the lines of whether we should be washing the outside of food cans or disinfecting our mail. I also remember seeing teams of people walking the streets at all hours wiping down poles and cleaning public benches. But what does the evidence actually say about surface transmission more than 12 months into this pandemic? Before addressing this, we need to define the question we’re asking. The key question isn’t whether surface transmission is possible, or whether it can occur in the real world—it almost certainly can. The …