You shouldn't believe viral tweets that claim hand sanitisers do nothing against coronavirus

Someone who claimed to be a scientist recently tweeted that hand sanitisers are useless against the coronavirus outbreak. 

On March 1, California-based Twitter user @jasminjoestar posited that “sanitiser will do nothing for the coronavirus”. This is based on her logic that sanitisers are essentially anti-bacterial and hence will not combat Covid-19, which is a virus. She even signed off as "a scientist that is tired of this s**t." 

This could not be further from the truth. 

The facts that you should be hearing is this: hand sanitisers remain great as hygienic alternatives when you don’t have access to soap and water. 

The best bet for hand hygiene — according to the World Health Organisation, the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and Singapore’s National Centre for Infectious Diseases — is still washing your hands frequently and thoroughly (for at least 20 seconds) with soap and water. 

This would prevent the infection of human coronaviruses, which are commonly spread through close personal contact and touching one’s mouth, nose or eyes after touching a surface with the virus on it. 

The next best thing if there aren’t any washrooms around (though honestly, they’re pretty easy to find in Singapore) would be hand sanitisers with at least 60 per cent alcohol content. Sure, they won’t be effective against all viruses, but several studies have indicated that alcohol-based sanitisers are effective against enveloped viruses, including human coronaviruses. 

So yes, Covid-19 can be killed by hand sanitisers. Soap and water are still the best, of course. 

Basically, it's surrounded by a fat layer. Washing your hands with soap and water has the ability to "dissolve" this greasy fatty layer and kill the virus. I'm told singing "Happy Birthday" twice is approximately how long we should all be scrubbing our hands with soap.
2/3

— Karen Fleming (@KarenFlemingPhD) February 28, 2020

Unfortunately, @jasminjoestar’s tweet has already been replicated across Twitter, which garnered hundreds of thousands of retweets and likes before it was deleted. 

The Twitter user has since issued a clarification today (March 4) about her inaccurate post, though she has yet to shed light on which branch of science she's in. 

Made tweet about washing hands is important. Said hand sanitizer isn’t going to do anything (not clear). Cleared it + replied under OP: 60%+ alcohol hand sanitizer is effective.

Super sorry for any mix up.
Hand washing is #1
Hand Sanitizer with 60%+ alcohol is great too!

— 「JASMIN」 (@jasminjoestar) March 3, 2020

Still, it’s no excuse for Singaporeans to start hoarding hand sanitisers because again, it’s not that hard to find spots in public where you can wash your hands with soap. But if you’re really desperate for hand sanitisers for some reason, there’s a way to make your own batch. 

For the latest updates on the coronavirus virus, visit here.

Ilyas@asiaone.com