Posted on 10/21/2020 8:57:24 AM PDT by Red Badger
A range of common household items – including mouthwash, nasal rinses, and even diluted baby shampoo – have been found to inactivate a form of human coronavirus in new research, highlighting another potential avenue to reduce transmission rates amid the ongoing COVID–19 pandemic.
Before we go any further, it's worth pointing out that nobody is suggesting mouthwash is some kind of silver bullet that can protect you from a virus that has killed over 1 million people so far, as that's not what this research is demonstrating, nor recommending.
For starters, nobody gargled oral rinses as part of these new experiments, which were performed in the lab using cultured human cells in solutions. In other words, we haven't yet tested in people the effects of using products like mouthwash on coronaviruses.
Also, it's worth noting the scientists in this study used a form of coronavirus called HCoV‐229e – not SARS-CoV–2, which is the specific coronavirus behind the disease COVID–19.
As both the viruses are genetically similar, the experiment's results are expected to broadly be the same, but it's another reason not to think that mouthwash use in real life confers any protective benefits, as that hasn't actually been shown.
Nonetheless, while health authorities strive to debunk popular misconceptions about supposed coronavirus defences in the background, scientists have been calling for more research investigating how products like mouthwash might interact with and inactivate SARS-CoV-2, due to the presence of chemicals known to disrupt viral membranes.
To examine this, a team from Penn State University exposed human liver cells in culture with mixed solutions containing HCoV‐229e and either mouthwash, a nasal rinse product, or baby shampoo diluted to 1 percent.
Tests revealed that all of the products were effective at inactivating the virus, although the extent of the effects varied between products, and depended on how long the products were in contact with the virus.
"With contact times of 1 and 2 minutes, the 1 percent baby shampoo solution was able to inactivate more than 99 percent and more than 99.9 percent or more of the virus, respectively," the researchers write in their paper.
Among the oral rinses, many of the products tested inactivated 99.99 percent of the virus after 30 seconds, and when incubation times grew longer than that (1 and 2 minutes), the researchers couldn't detect any remaining infectious virus in the cells.
The findings support earlier research from Germany published in July, which also suggested exposure to mouthwash could significantly reduce the viral load of coronavirus. It's worth pointing out, too, that the German study used SARS-CoV-2 in the experiments, which were otherwise similar to the Penn State study.
Nonetheless, neither of these studies can guarantee we'd see the same outcomes in tests with human participants, and there's a lot we don't know about how products like mouthwash and oral rinses might function in real-world scenarios.
Still, given the kind of positive results we're seeing in experiments like this – and given how few defences we currently have against coronavirus, beyond common staples such as physical distancing, hand-washing, and wearing masks – the researchers say we should be looking at clinical trials to evaluate whether products like mouthwash can actually reduce viral load in COVID-19-positive patients, too.
"Clinical trials are needed to determine if these products can reduce the amount of virus COVID-positive patients or those with high-risk occupations may spread while talking, coughing, or sneezing," says microbiologist Craig Meyers, the first author of the study.
"Even if the use of these solutions could reduce transmission by 50 percent, it would have a major impact."
The findings are reported in Journal of Medical Virology.
Maybe we could inject bleach?
The mouthwash needs to be at least 65 % alcohol.
Listerine is 65 %.
Dr. Tichenor’s is 70 %.
Does your mouthwash have alcohol in it?
If not it probably won’t work as per the original study.
My Dad and my wife’s Dad were addicted to Listerine, which might explain why they didn’t catch the 1918 flu.
In 1879, Dr. Lawrence created Listerine – a mouthwash used for cleaning mouths and sterilizing surgical wounds. By 1895, Listerine was sold to Lambert Pharmaceutical Co. and dentists began to observe the cleaning power of the mouthwash.
What this MIGHT mean for us, is that baby shampoo is an effective cleaning product to use against the virus?
Since it is very difficult to find sanitizers of late, and they tend to be very expensive, this could be very helpful.
JMHO
That’s higher proof than Whiskey or Tequila!..............
Lets all run out and buy all the mouthwash we can find.
Does your mouthwash have alcohol in it?
If not it probably won’t work as per the original study.
My Dad and my wife’s Dad were addicted to Listerine, which might explain why they didn’t catch the 1918 flu.
In 1879, Dr. Lawrence created Listerine – a mouthwash used for cleaning mouths and sterilizing surgical wounds. By 1895, Listerine was sold to Lambert Pharmaceutical Co. and dentists began to observe the cleaning power of the mouthwash.
“MAY help”. Here we go again.
bookmark
White Man’s Sanitation saves lives - again.
Mouthwash be racist.
Stupid.
Now they are blatantly making shit up.
Then again, it is a well known fact the Scotch protects you from various diseases, germs and viruses...
Effin idiots
And we are suppose to take them seriously anymore...
“Maybe we could inject bleach?”
Or just drink a pint of Everclear. :)
Have they tested it in combination with Chicken Soup?
May that word again
maybe
could
might
Well sure, it’s basically hand sanitizer for your mouth. Mostly alcohol, kills lots of stuff. Of course that’s really only if you’ve got the bug sitting in your mouth and haven’t actually gotten it into your system yet.
I have bad seasonal sinus issues, and have been recommended by an ENT to use those power flushing sinus rinses (way better than nelli pot). Sometimes I have gotten sinus infections that required me to flush with a prescription called Wilsons Solution that was an antibiotic, just to get rid of the infection.
My primary doc suggested I flush with diluted baby shampoo, and it seemed to work just as good.
this has been out for awhile- but the ingredients need to be the ones in colgate total or others- is Cetylpyridinium Chloride - they had some nasal inhaler that they found killed the virus with this ingredient, and immediately took it off the market to ‘test it’ the name was ‘Halo’ i believe-
Antiviral oral spray to undergo testing for prevention of coronavirus infection
Colgate total and other mouthwashes have that ingredient too- it’s easy to use- we keep sum in the car and use it immediately before going into stores or whatever- if it doesn’t work- oh well- whatever- at least we’;ll have good smellin breath- if it does work to help prevent the virus- then great- it’s a win win-
that ingredient plus alcohol will be a double whammy- aqnd i think there is another ingredient in the mouthwash that ‘binds’ the virus, preventing it form going any further- then the ingredient mentioned above, Cetylpyridinium Chloride, does it’s ‘magic’ - supposedly, according to early reports on it-
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