Everywhere you go now they have hand sanitizer out as if that proves the facility is covid safe. Probably one of the first things that sold out and was the first line of defense applied was hand sanitizing – clearly that did not work. Covid is spread not from fomites (objects) but primarily through the air via droplets and other airborne particles. Yet we still have this fascination of hand sanitizers. Before Covid the FDA/CDC were investigating the overuse of hand sanitizer. There are many studies siting the concerns and misuse of hand sanitizer – over and over there is no better way than washing your hands with soap and water. IF they are so concern about this why not put the portable hand washing systems seen at concerts and events around. For now we see plastic bottles of hand sanitizers all over the place.

2019 report basically saying ethanol based sanitizers ineffective in mucus – wash with soap and water!

https://msphere.asm.org/content/msph/4/5/e00474-19.full.pdf

“Both antiseptic hand rubbing (AHR) using ethanol-based disinfectants (EBDs) and antiseptic hand washing (AHW) are important means of infection control to prevent seasonal influenza A virus (IAV) outbreaks. However, previous reports suggest a reduced efficacy of ethanol disinfection against pathogens in mucus.”

“Our clinical study showed that EBD effectiveness against IAV in mucus was extremely reduced compared to IAV in saline. IAV in mucus remained active despite 120 s of AHR; however, IAV in saline was completely inactivated within 30 s. Due to the low rate of diffusion/convection because of the physical properties of mucus as a hydrogel, the time required for the ethanol concentration to reach an IAV inactivation level and thus for EBDs to completely inactivate IAV was approximately eight times longer in mucus than in saline. On the other hand, AHR inactivated IAV in mucus within 30 s when the mucus dried completely because the hydrogel characteristics were lost.”

2011 report noting that hand sanitizers are ineffective with norovirus and can actually cause more harm – wash with soap and water!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3168661/

“Alcohol-based hand sanitizers may not be the panacea for hand hygiene they were once supposed, as mounting research indicates they may not be effective substitutes for soap and water, and in some cases may actually increase the risk for outbreaks of highly contagious viruses in health care settings.”

“It’s widely recognized that improper use of antibiotics contributes greatly to the development and spread of super bugs in health care settings, but the link between hand sanitizers and bacterial resistance is less clear.

A survey of 161 long-term care facilities in the United States presented at an American College of Preventative Medicine meeting in February revealed an association between the preferential use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers for routine hand hygiene with an increased risk for outbreaks of norovirus, the highly infectious virus that causes most cases of acute gastroenteritis.

Staff in facilities that experienced norovirus outbreaks were six times more likely to use hand sanitizers equally or more than soap and water for routine hand hygiene, according to the study (Am J Infect Control 2011;39:296–301). Of 45 facilities that reported preferential use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, 53% experienced a confirmed outbreak of norovirus, compared with 18% of 17 facilities that used hand sanitizers less often than soap and water.”

2009 report – shows soap and water most effective/superior to alcohol hand rub

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19115974/

“There was an immediate reduction in culture-detectable and PCR-detectable H1N1 after brief cutaneous air drying–14 of 20 health care workers had H1N1 detected by means of culture (mean reduction, 10(3-4) TCID(50)/0.1 mL), whereas 6 of 20 had no viable H1N1 recovered; all 20 health care workers had similar changes in PCR test results. Marked antiviral efficacy was noted for all 4 HH protocols, on the basis of culture results (14 of 14 had no culturable H1N1; (P< .002) and PCR results (P< .001; cycle threshold value range, 33.3-39.4), with SW statistically superior (P< .001) to all 3 alcohol-based hand rubs, although the actual difference was only 1-100 virus copies/microL. There was minimal reduction in H1N1 after 60 min without HH.

Conclusions: HH with SW or alcohol-based hand rub is highly effective in reducing influenza A virus on human hands, although SW is the most effective intervention. Appropriate HH may be an important public health initiative to reduce pandemic and avian influenza transmission.”

Conclusion wash you hand with soap and water – save your microbiome and effectively rid yourself of harmful viruses. Use of alcohol based sanitizers should be limited for use where there is no option to wash hands. Your use of alcohol sanitizers are not for the reduction of covid but from getting other illness as the primary transmission of covid is through the air. Just because a store has hand sanitizers laying around this will not create a safe environment for you in terms of covid infection.

India leads the death chart – US is under 1K deaths. Israel joins the total 1K death club (1006 deaths attributed to covid)

Texas leads the US at 150 deaths

Harris County TX actually leads the death count for all counties in the US at 27

Fatality rate in Harris County still sits at 2% and even with current jump in deaths still showing a downward trend on a 7 day moving average.

India has overtaken Brazil in deaths and confirmations largely due to the shear volume of people. Fatality rate is still relatively low at 1.7%