Virus Safety, the Stupid Version

Viruses vs. bacteria

A physician of our acquaintance (the daughter-in-law of a staffer) bemoans the proliferation of "antibacterial" products. With just a few exceptions, she won't allow them in her home because she knows that overuse of the products is likely to evolve ever more resistant strains of bacteria. She, like us at the Antisocial Network, was absolutely flabbergasted at the ignorance she encountered when she read the article "How to Kill Viruses" that Melanie Fleury posted to azCentral.com (a niche site of eHow... are you not surprised?)

Fleury, here making her fifth appearance as DotD, fell victim to what might be charitably described as a "common misconception"; although our staff feels that "common stupidity" might be a better description. Here's the first instance:

"Use a soap or antibacterial cleaner and wash after trips to the bathroom, before consuming food and drink, after touching items (mostly in public places) that have not been disinfected, shaking hands with people, and any other situation where virus contamination could have occurred." Fleury, like vast numbers of the scientifically illiterate, seemed to think that so-called antibacterial cleaners are effective against viruses; so much so that she referred to antibacterial soaps and cleaners five different times. They are not effective against viruses. Antibacterials are effective, to some degree or other, against bacteria. In case Fleury doesn't know it, bacteria and viruses are not the same thing – even if she does think that,

"Antibacterial soaps have active ingredients that work at cleaning and killing many bacteria as well as come [sic] viruses."

Not content with repeating bogus information about antibacterial cleaners, Melanie moved on to heat. According to Fleury, another way to combat viruses is,

"Heat bathrooms and kitchens. If you have a steamer in your home, it is a great way to add heat in areas to clean viruses. Viruses will die at temperatures of 75 Celsius up to 100 degrees Celsius."

Yes, this science illiterate actually told people to heat their houses to temperatures between 165° and 212°F to kill viruses. We hope she takes the cat out first...
Fleury does repeat some of the more useful information she cribbed from her sole reference, such as washing one's hands with soap and hot water, although she soft-pedals the use of alcohol-based sanitizers in favor of antibacterial soaps (we repeat: antibacterials do not kill viruses; you need antivirals...). That's exactly the sort of half-baked misinformation we regularly find coming from our Dumbass of the Day candidates.

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