In my model, the threat of phones is that they undermine the benefit of washing your hands, because nobody washes their phones/pocket when they wash their hands. Picture the following scenario:
You touch a contaminated surface
You check your phone
You wash your hands
You check your phone
You eat finger food.
You now have the virus, as it has piggy backed onto the back side of your phone. If you didn't have your phone, washing your hands would have been effective.
I agree with this, but one thing I wonder about -- how much virus is transferred at each stage? Viruses (unlike bacteria) strictly cannot reproduce outside the human body. So there should be a zero-sum (really negative-sum) process happening in these kinds of contamination events. You ought to end up with a lot less virus on your phone the second time, in the above sequence, than the first time -- right?
Have not read through all the comments, and probably won't, so perhaps this has already been pointed out.
I don't see that my phone is any more at risk than my hands, I can wipe the desk down with a sterilizing wipe, and do the same with my phone if I want. I tend to keep my phone either in my hand or in a pocket when outside my house. So as far as I can see the phone is not more a threat than my hands.
However, I is not uncommon for me to have my phone touching or very near my face, ears, mouth.
Has anyone suggested using speaker and holding the phone away from your face? Or is the assumption that everyone just used wired or bluetooth headsets/earbuds with a mic?