As you take steps to avoid the germs and viruses that
proliferate as winter progresses, you've no doubt received a
good share of advice on how to avoid catching whatever's going
around. ABCNews OnCall+ spoke with experts about some of the
popular myths about germs that tend to spread as fast as the
bacteria themselves this time of year. Is a dog's mouth cleaner
than a person's? How unsafe are public toilet seats? Some of
these questions lack hard data, and the study findings sometimes
conflict. So before taking advice from your friends, you might
want to check their wisdom about our microbe neighbors. Fact or
Myth? You can get infections or illnesses from sitting directly
on a public toilet seat. "Just sort of sitting on the seat and
having that contact with the skin on your butt isn't going to be
a way of transmitting an infection," said Elizabeth Scott, co-
director and founder of the Simmons Center for Hygiene and
Health in Home and Community Settings at Simmons College in
Boston. "I think that one's associ