Knew I could count on you for this.
I think of you every time I see a Captain pull out the little United sani-wipes and start wiping down all the controls. Didn't you tell us that they were basically pushing the germs around instead of actually disinfecting the controls?
Kinda, sorta, but not exactly. Most of those "old style" wipes are almost pure propanol (rubbing alcohol). Everyone here knows how fast alcohol evaporates on a surface. To kill bugs dead, you need something toxic to them, obviously, but it also needs to hang around long enough to kill them.
Propanol (and it's friends methanol & ethanol) has very, very little persistence in a thin film. It practically evaporates as you are wiping it. Now if your goal is to clean inert dirt, inorganics and whatnot, then it's perfectly fine, kinda*. But if your goal is to kill bugs, then no, it does nothing.
To kill bugs (a technical term that includes bacteria, viruses, fungus and other microbial life) with propanol, you need to cut it with a lot of water. At least a 70/30 propanol/water mix by volume. And it needs to sit and soak for at least 30 seconds. That means it needs to be WET with the solution for at least that.
Some of the post-apocalypse wipes have..."stuff" (another technical term) in them. Mostly dimethyl/benzyl compounds you don't want hanging out on your skin too long (spoken from someone who used to wipe down his plane's struts with 100LL). They work better, but you still need to have persistence, so the surface needs to be wet at least SOME amount of time. You aren't going to find the hard stuff hanging around in little wipes.
You're skin works pretty darn well at keeping the bugs out. Just wash your hands, and don't touch your face. Heck, just rinsing your hands with water (no soap) eliminates 80% of bugs through mechanical action alone.
If you don't want to do that, you can make your own solution in a small squirt bottle. 70/30 by volume propanol (iso-propanol, rubbing alcohol, etc) and water. In theory you should use distilled water, but normal bottled water will do fine. WET the surface with the solution so that it REMAINS WET for at least 30 seconds, and wipe. Do that and now you've entered the realm of scientifically accurate OCD.
* If your goal is the clean crud (yet another technical term), then you need a solution that can dissolve both polar & non-polar substances (just remember "like dissolves like"). Plain alcohol works ok for some stuff, not for others. That's why we need stuff like soap.