Recently, stories sprang from a new study that mouthwash can “inactivate” coronaviruses and help curb their spread. A new study found that coronavirus that causes common colds, not the one that causes COVID-19 could be incapacitated in a laboratory when doused with mouthwash. The study’s authors concluded that the products they tested “may provide an additional level of protection against” the new coronavirus. Not only did the study not investigate this deadly virus, but it also did not test whether mouthwash affects how viruses spread from person to person. The study, which was published last month in the Journal of Medical Virology, looked only at a coronavirus called 229E that causes common colds. The study did not look into the new coronavirus, which goes by the formal name of SARS-CoV-2, and causes far more serious disease. Researchers tested the virus-destroying effects of several products. It included a watered-down mixture of Johnson’s baby shampoo, which is sometimes used to flush out the inside of the nose and mouthwashes made by Listerine, Crest, Orajel, Equate and C.V.S. But because the study didn’t recruit any human volunteers to gargle the products in question, the findings have limited value for the real world, other experts told the New York Times. Nothing should be considered conclusive “unless human studies are performed,” said Dr Maricar Malinis, an infectious disease expert at Yale University.
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