3 ms·

Both regular hand washing and hand sanitizer are effective. Each can be used in different places, which makes them both useful. For example, I sanitize my hands

Both regular hand washing and hand sanitizer are effective. Each can be used in different places, which makes them both useful. For example, I sanitize my hands in the car after going to the grocery store. Hard to make soap and water work for that case.

erik_seaberg 6y ago
The way I heard it, sanitizer seems to work (and is usable anywhere), but soap followed by running water has an advantage in not only breaking up the fatty layer protecting a coronavirus, but also sweeping it off your skin.
- petertodd 6y ago
  SARS-CoV-2 needs that outer shell to be able to infect you. Lab tests have found that even when hand sanitizer is diluted well below recommended levels of concentration, it's still very effective at inactivating SARS-CoV-2: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7431409/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7431409/ It's a relatively fragile virus. Fact is, there's very little evidence of COVID-19 spreading via surfaces, so hand hygiene and surface cleaning probably makes little if any difference: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30678-2/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3... With some diseases surfaces certainly can be a common source of infection. But COVID-19 doesn't appear to be one of them.