I’m not interested in their narrative, I’m talking about their numbers. They measured plaque formation - colonies - of bacteria from surface wipes around the toilet after flushing a contaminated toilet bowl. Depending on the location & lid state, they got, generally 10^3-10^6 plaques. 10^5 with the lid closed, 10^6 open, which is a 10x difference. There’s no difference in the surfaces directly facing the bowl; hardly surprising that there’s little contamination left by the time you get all the way to the walls - 1/r^2 effect. Look at the surface you sit on.