Safe touch?

We are currently seeing some notions on "touch" and "touchscreens"that I feel are rather worrying. Normally it's not something that would bother me - after all, there are enough cures out there for whatever might ail you and as long as they don't do any harm, it's not worth worrying about. However, this one is a little more serious, because for as long as it appears that this virus can be transmitted through touching surfaces, we need to take it seriously, and commercial pressure should not govern our decisions when it comes to "touchscreens". Hence this article - just to go through what I've seen being suggested as solutions, and thinking my way through them.

Disclaimer: since this pandemic started, we have developed a number of touchless technologies because we were concerned about the whole 'touch' thing. This article is not intending to promote that technology - it is intended to express why we have concerns, what we think are ways forward for public venues, and in the process it explains why we started the 'touchless' development. We're concerned about the fact that it appears that the virus can be transmitted through touching surfaces, and until it does, we are serious about trying to touch as few surfaces in public spaces as we can. Stopping this virus is high on our list of priorities, both personally and as a business.

There are different solutions being banded about when it comes to 'touch', specifically as it relates to 'touchscreens'. Some are ok, some are not, and some are in that no-man's land of "I wouldn't" simply because there is no corroborating evidence that it's a good idea or that it even works. We too deploy touchscreens, and once this pandemic is over and we have a vaccine, we expect we'll go back to using them again. In the mean time the evidence is that they're not a great solution while we're seeing numbers that are not falling, and so at least for now we should think about what we can do to improve safety - for me, adding one single victim unnecessarily is one too many.

Here's my list thus far:

• Having staff clean the touchscreens. You can probably use chemicals such as Lysol (Dettol) sterilize a touchscreen after every use (otherwise why bother) - but who will, and how thoroughly will that be done? To me, this is not a viable solution although no matter what, touchscreens should be cleaned on a regular basis - but if you don't clean after every use you're not providing a real level of safety.
• Wearing gloves is an acceptable solution provided that you don't touch your face and learn how to take them off properly.
• Using a 'stylus' or similar device is a safer way to use a touchscreen - and if everybody uses it, it's 100% safe. At a few pennies each they're cheap and plentiful. You could print your institution's name on it, and hope people use them elsewhere too - a good choice! In the long run, not something we want to see, because obviously we don't want landfills full of them, but if everybody has a stylus for 'normal life', them that certainly reduces the risk for all and it'll reduce the wastage.
• Antimicrobial shields. This is one that worries me: you can buy 'antimicrobial shields' for touchscreens. You can also buy 'perpetual mobile machines'. There is probably some commonality. Antimicrobial shields are designed to 'slow down or kill' microbial growth. We're not dealing with bacteria. We are dealing with a virus. Here's a definition "Technically a microorganism or microbe is an organism that is microscopic. Microorganisms can be bacteria, fungi, archaea or protists. The term microorganisms does not include viruses and prions, which are generally classified as non-living." Anti-microbial shields slow down and potentially stop the growth (!!!) of living organisms as they provide an environment in which bacteria and fungi cannot easily replicate. A virus is not a living organism. Until independent tests prove efficacy, this one is most certainly not on our 'acceptable' list. It's quite possibly a great way to reduce the possibility of spreading bacteria, but we would not suggest it as a solution against this virus as we've not been able to find any independent evidence that it is useful.
• Applying copper somehow. Yes, copper is a useful solution to contain this virus, in the right place. As a surface (presumably a clean surface) it kills the virus after about 4 hours. As a "touch copper and you're good" (or indeed "wear a copper mask") that's clearly pretty well nonsense. As for a 'copper alloy' ??? Who knows. Alloys don't always transfer all the better properties of each individual metal...
• Those no touch weird looking tool things that are now turning up everywhere. Yes, why not, especially if they have a stylus front so that you can use them to touch things. I'd not worry about the copper thing (see above) - but the fact that you can use them to open doors, use an ATM and in an elevator without touching the surface directly with your hands reduces risks, and therefore seems like a useful solution.
• QR codes for a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) solution? Yes, a great solution if you can give visitors a 'like' or at least an acceptable experience. Using your own phone or tablet to control interactives is a solid solution. Worst case, providing some simple tablets (think cheap Fire tablets maybe?) to visitors and cleaning them with chemicals and/or UVC between uses seems like a good way forward to also provide an option for people without smartphones.
• (There are other more sophisticated technological solutions that we'll not go into here)

All in all, if you have existing touchscreens and you just need to get people back into your venue, consider supplying your visitors with a cheap stylus of some sort - you can get them for pennies. Make sure to have a supply of those 'touch tool' things, there are some pretty cheap options available and if you get someone to silk-screen your logo onto it, it's a solution that we'd expect visitors to be interested in acquiring from your gift store (make sure to have a supply of them visibly available by the entry!!) Ultimately, we'd be concerned about all of that ending up in a landfill - but for now they're an opportunity to get your institution's name out and an option to keep your visitors safe if you don't have a better way to deal with 'touch'.