We hate germs. And we are going to ever more elaborate lengths to avoid them. Simon Sassoon, a nephew of Vidal, the famous hairdresser, has just launched Happy Hands, a device that sprays disinfectant on door handles in public places every 15 minutes (it’s in competition in America with Safe-T-Gard, a dispenser of doorknob-size disposable tissues). The idea came to him in a dream. A dream? “There’s a tremendous ‘ick’ factor when it comes to doorknobs,” he noted in a recent interview.

The fight to combat germs in America is being simultaneously fought on many fronts including transport systems, schools, water supplies and computers — something that The New York Times thinks is more than a coincidence. It calls the trend “germaphobia”, quoting Barry Glassner, author of The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things. He contends that “a feeling of protection” is being sold cheaply by people scenting a business opportunity.

There may be something to this. It certainly helps to explain the appeal of the Sani-Shopping Cover, a protective vinyl sheath for supermarket trolley handles (£1.50) and the Ionic Personal Air Purifier (about £20), which you sling around your neck.