First Aid for Life - Common Coronavirus myths dispelled Post Reply

[charlotte_admin]

Everyone is searching for answers and advice around coronavirus. Unfortunately, there are many popular and dangerous social media posts online containing misinformation and fake news about how to treat and prevent the virus. This article from First Aid for Life will dispel the top 11 myths about coronavirus and offer trusted advice from official sources.

 

[cynic]

This is mostly very sensible advice

“It is thought that the virus can survive on cardboard for up to 4 hours and so if concerned wipe all groceries with antibacterial cloths before bringing them into your home”

I am afraid the above sentence is potentially misleading.
Antibacterial agents have no effect on a virus.
While most antibacterial wipes/products will also contain detergent, please be clear that detergent/soap is the best thing to clean things with (alcohol and bleach can be used to disinfect if the concentrations are correct).

Also there’s quite a bit of evidence that the virus can survive on hard surfaces such as plastic packaging for 72hours, so quarantining/cleaning packaging is an approach some people may wish to take, (especially if say you have an extremely vulnerable person in your household).

[Emma]

Thank you for this comment. Antibacterial agents will combat viruses too - please read the packaging. I think you may be confused between antibacterial and antibiotics. Antibiotics will not kill viruses as they only work on specific bacteria. 

Antibacterial sprays and wipes will almost always treat virally affected surfaces too and usually say Kill 99.9% of viruses on them.

I like the idea of quarantining packaging if that works for you  Best wishes Emma

[cynic]

I am not confused.

Antibacterial agents do not kill viruses, they kill bacteria. (as they are named).
Antibacterial agents themselves do not have much effect on the structure of viruses.

It is true (and I mentioned it in my comment) that many antibacterial products also contain some soap and some alcohol.
However the alcohol needs to be of a high enough concentration to kill covid-19 (thought to be at least 60-70%) and it unlikely this is can be achieved by the application of a typical disposable ‘antibacterial’ wipe.
Alcohol wipes (of a high enough concentration) would be superior, but can also face the same application practicalities.
It’s is also unlikely that enough soap is deployed from an antibacterial wipe.
Obviously some wipes are ‘better’ than others, and may contain other disinfectants but you expressed no guidance on this in your article.

Overall I think your inclusion of the word antibacterial is, as I said potentially misleading as it may lead people seek to out the word ‘antibacterial’ in a product label when it is unnecessary, rather than checking other details such as alcohol concentration or is there any information about effectiveness against viruses
For example antibacterial soap actually contains slightly less soap than regular soap and is often much more expensive, when literally a bar of soap is just as effective.

[Emma]

I think we are saying the same thing. People should ideally read the label. Most quality antibacterial agents clearly state that they will kill 99.9% of viruses too. Washing your hands regularly with soap and wiping down products with quality antibacterial solutions, soap or wipes should remove coronavirus.

[cynic]

I am sorry, but I don’t think we are saying the same thing.

Many supermarket antibacterial wipes do not make any claims about killing viruses e.g. Tesco own brand, Waitrose own brand.
I have always agreed that higher quality wipes e.g. certainly those available to healthcare professionals, may be effective against some viruses e.g. cold & flu viruses (and thus one may infer that they may be effective against Covid-19)

It seems you do agree that there is a big difference between a lot of products as in your first reply suggesting to “read the packaging” and your last reply clarifying “quality antibacterial agents”.

But your otherwise very sensible article doesn’t make this important point at all, instead it simply seems to advise to look for the label ‘antibacterial’
I’ve tried to make a polite point to you that this using this term alone is potentially misleading that is all, but you seem rather determined not to accept this point.