No - the CDC is unambiguous: soap and water is the best way to remove germs in most situations; 60%+ alcohol sanitizer is the backup when no sink exists.
Sanitizer kills but does not remove - dirt, grease, and dead germs stay on; it underperforms on dirty hands; and norovirus, the stomach-bug champion, shrugs off alcohol, which is why CDC norovirus guidance says soap and water, not sanitizer alone. One honest point for sanitizer: a backup you actually use beats a sink you skip. Pymander's escalation routing is built and tested specifically for this class of decision; see the safety architecture working paper .
What to do
Common questions
Does hand sanitizer work as well as soap?
No - soap and water is the better clean, and the CDC is unambiguous: washing with soap and water is the best way to get rid of germs in most situations; sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol is the backup for when a sink is not available. The differences that matter: sanitizer kills many germs on contact but does not remove them - it leaves dead microbes, dirt, grease, and chemicals on your hands, while soap plus friction plus rinsing physically carries everything off; sanitizer performs poorly on visibly dirty or greasy hands; and it has a pathogen blind spot that matters a lot in winter - norovirus, the stomach-bug champion, shrugs off alcohol, which is why the CDC's norovirus guidance says soap and water, explicitly not sanitizer alone. The correct hierarchy: sink with soap and 20 seconds of scrubbing whenever one exists, 60%+ alcohol sanitizer for transit and no-sink moments, and treat sanitizer as useless against the stomach-flu season germs going around the office or school. One more honest point for sanitizer: in healthcare settings it outperforms soap for routine decontamination because it is fast and used more often - compliance beats perfection, and a backup you actually use beats a sink you skip.