SHARE: When the Metropolitan Transportation Authority made the decision in April to end 24/7 subway service in New York City, the reasoning was to allow for the deep disinfecting of subway cars and stations as the pandemic raged in the city – and as part of an effort to keep homeless New Yorkers from sleeping on trains. But nearly a year into the pandemic, these kinds of cleaning efforts have been dismissed by some experts as “hygiene theater,” noting that the spread of the coronavirus largely happens by airborne transmission, and not surface transmission. To boot, the closures don’t save the MTA any money, as officials acknowledged at a joint legislative hearing on Tuesday. “That was not done as a cost-saving effort,” MTA Chief Financial Officer Robert Foran said of the closures. “We are still running trains. They are to get our workforce back and forth.”