Illustrative vial of coronavirus vaccine
All kinds of things have been circulating on social media and elsewhere online over the past few weeks about COVID-19 and the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) that causes it.
You may have heard that drinking lots of hot water or taking a hot bath can kill the virus or protect you from it somehow, but as far as we know right now social distancing and lots of hand-washing remain the best way to avoid infection.
The myths have become so prevalent as the pandemic has escalated that the World Health Organization (WHO) has posted a new myth-busting page to its website to help set the record straight.
The WHO would like you to know that “the COVID-19 virus can be transmitted in ALL AREAS, including areas with hot and humid weather” and that “there is no reason to believe that cold weather can kill the new coronavirus or other diseases.”
Furthermore, taking a hot bath and using hand dryers or ultraviolet (UV) lamps instead of soap and water will not protect you from the virus or COVID-19.
World Health Organization
The idea that various types of heat and light may help protect against the virus may be based on early research that has suggested SARS-CoV2 may be vulnerable to sunlight and higher temperatures. However, most of this research is highly preliminary, not peer reviewed and seems to be contradicted by some of the facts on the ground.
Drinking hot water and taking hot baths also don’t raise your internal body temperature anyhow. Your body does that itself when it is infected to fight off a virus - it’s called a fever. Trying to induce that response using hot water is only likely to burn you.
Also, spraying alcohol or chlorine all over yourself will not kill the virus if it has already entered your body, but it could mess up your clothes and irritate your tissues. Instead, just stick to soap and water. It really does fight the virus as well as anything else.
The WHO says that popular home remedies like eating garlic or doing a saline nose rinse won’t do any good against coronavirus, although garlic can be helpful on promoting general health.
As far as vaccines and medications go, there’s been rumors that a vaccine against SARS-CoV2 already exists, but the truth is that possible vaccines are in the earliest stages of development and at least a year away from being available.
World Health Organization
WHO says that other vaccines meant to protect against things like pneumonia are not effective against the new coronavirus. Neither are antibiotics, which only fight bacteria. In fact, there is currently no medicine recommended to treat COVID-19, although some are being investigated and supportive care can also help patients recover.
Remember that scientists spend years researching viruses and diseases. We are dealing with a virus that has only been known for a few months right now. While a number of researchers are sharing their findings openly, science at this preliminary stage can often be confusing, contradictory and messy: we may think we know something about this virus one day, only to see that finding contradicted by other evidence the following day.
This is where we’re at right now. Few things are known for sure, except that basic methods of social distancing and cleanliness are currently our best weapons to slow the acceleration of this historic pandemic.
Be safe, stay home and be careful about what information you share.
