Avoiding Fake Coronavirus Health Advice Online – 7 Things You Need to Know

4. Home-made hand sanitiser

In times of global panic, there are always going to be shortages and in some cases, people will try to hoard and profit from certain items, in this case, hand sanitiser gel. Tennessee man, Matt Colvin, became a subject of national scorn after stockpiling 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer and tried to sell them on Amazon and eBay for exorbitant prices.

Tapping into the fact that washing your hands is one key way to prevent the spread of the virus, he was suspended as a seller by Amazon and eBay and the Tennessee attorney general’s office sent him a cease-and-desist letter and opened an investigation. He would eventually give his supplies to a local church to be distributed for free.

With these shortages, there has been no shortage of recipes online to make your own home-made hand sanitiser. However, these ‘recipes’ were for a disinfectant better suited for cleaning surfaces and, as scientists pointed out, not suitable for use on skin.

Alcohol-based hand gels usually also contain emollients, which make them gentler on the skin, on top of their 60-70% alcohol content. Professor Sally Bloomfield, at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says she does not believe you could make an effective product for sanitising hands at home – even vodka only contains 40% alcohol.

Cleaning the surfaces around your home is as equally as important as cleaning your hands so the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says most common household disinfectants should be effective.