Nonsense.
If you wear gloves, evil stuff never comes in contact with your hands. You do what you're going to do, remove the gloves properly and discard them properly, and you've eliminated a huge route of infection. That's why EMS personnel, doctors, and nurses wear gloves.
It is absolutely NOT nonsense. The way most people (both store employees and the general public) are using gloves is not "protecting" anyone. It's a false sense of security and a waste of resources when they should just be washing their hands more often instead.
I am well aware of why/how gloves are to be properly used. Which is why I think it's ridiculous to see people wearing them and going about their business as usual as if simply having gloves on is magically preventing the germs from spreading.
You even stated it in your post above-- you wear the gloves while touching the gross/dirty/dangerous thing and
then you properly remove them. Using the medical example: You would never touch the gross/dirty/dangerous thing with gloved hands and then leave your gloves on all day while you go on to touch your pen, the door knob, and the next patient. How is that any different than a cashier using one pair of gloves all day: they're touching someone else's groceries, the register, the cash, then my groceries, then on to the next person with the same gloves on?
There have been many studies about using gloves in food preparation that have found it's often more unsanitary because people feel the gloves are more "sterile" they are not washing their hands or removing the gloves in between touching various things.
Here's some information from the WHO about glove use:
https://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/Glove_Use_Information_Leaflet.pdf
Some key points:
-- "prolonged use of gloves for contact precautions in the absence of considering the need to perform hand hygiene can result in the transmission of germs"
-- "The unnecessary and inappropriate use of gloves results in a waste of resource and may increase the risk of germ transmission. "
-- "Inappropriate glove use:
• The use of gloves when not indicated represents a waste of resources and does not contribute to a reduction of cross-transmission.
• It may also result in missed opportunities for hand hygiene.
• The use of contaminated gloves caused by inappropriate storage, inappropriate moments and techniques for donning and removing, may also result in germ transmission."