/sci/ - Science & Math

I have Germaphobia because I simply lack the understanding of how germs work.

How long do germs live and how easily do they jump from surface to surface? Any time I touch something I just have to imagine the history of everything it came in touch with.

I live in a big city where of course you see occasional bird poop, dog poop, spit and piss on the streets. People step through it and then go into a store. Now if someone drops something and picks it up did any of these poop germs transfer on it? I can't help but think about that. The people stocking the shelves may have scratched their butt or cleaned their nose or went to the toilet and washed their hands badly before touching all the products. How many germs transfer like this? In the big city you have occasionally hobos go into the store and who knows what they touched. How dirty are the hands of cashiers and how much of that transfers onto the stuff I buy? I see people occasionally drop something and pick it up but isn't the floor in a big city basically lava considering all the dirt on the streets?

Could any microbiologists shed light on this? If I bought say a can of soda in the store and took a sample from the surface. Would I find a concenctration of germs that could make you seriously sick?