July 2, 2020 — With soiled doorway handles, closely trafficked bathroom bowls, and proximity to strangers, public restrooms can be a germophobe’s worst nightmare. But the COVID-19 pandemic adds a new layer of chance, and infectious disorder medical practitioners are urging people to be careful in advance of the holiday weekend.

A modern research published in Physics of Fluids outlines the likely risks of bathroom plumes — clouds of droplets that can rise three feet from a flushing bathroom and be inhaled by an unsuspecting user. Aside from the apparent ick issue, simulations identified that coronavirus remnants in a person’s