Clothing is probably the least problematic thing. Every time some nurse or doctor uses a keyboard I want to scream. I regularly see doctors use the keyboard, wash their hands, and then use the keyboard again before beginning an examine. Recently I've started to see plastic covers on the keyboards, as if that mattered relative to the order of touching things.

Realistically, cross-contamination in the hospital is almost certainly far more dangerous and consequential. Hospitals are full of infectious people, afterall, and why MRSA is more common in hospitals than in other environments. I'd rather be treated by a garbage man fresh off his route who's more mindful about what he touches after washing his hands and after touching something possibly contaminated, even if his clothes are filthy.

The plastic cover can be taken off and washed (in theory) so it should be much less dirty.

I'm sure there's some study indicating that, despite best protocol, many of those keyboard covers are biological weapons equal to any naked keyboard.

> Yes, I know surgeons actually change into sterile scrubs before going into surgery

No, they put clean ones on, then put something sterile over the top. The racks of scrubs are used by everyone. You just grab a pair. You check the crotch doesn't have a hole in it, and that the elastic is still stretchy.

For comparison, the number of MRSA deaths in 2017 was 19,832 in the US.

How long MRSA survives outside a host? Does it survive better on regularly cleaned surfaces where there are not much regular bacteria?