BOISE, Idaho — Separating the facts from fear on the internet is no easy task when it comes to the coronavirus. A picture being passed around social media claims to illustrate how well we wash our hands through a UV or black light, as one person texted to us.
But is it accurate?
For answers, we went to Dr. Cynthia Curl, an associate professor at Boise State University's Department of Community & Environmental Health.
"We touch our faces all the time, we touch the door handles, we touch everything all day," Dr. Curl said. "It is really important to wash your hands more often than you think."
To demonstrate why, Dr. Curl uses 'Glo Germ' oil, which illuminates where the germs live under a UV light.
"You want to make a lather but more than anything you want to be sure that you are creating enough friction to get the germs into the lather so that it can wash off," Dr. Curl said. "And not just the palms. You want to get the backs of your hands, both of them, you want to get in between your fingers, you want to get around your thumbs, in the nail bed. You want to get your wrists. I think that's a common one people forget."
Dr. Curl says the whole process should take about 20 seconds, roughly the amount of time it takes to sing 'Happy Birthday' twice or singing the ABC's slowly.
"It just goes to show how hard it is to wash our hands well and how much we have to think about that," she said.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says properly washing your hands is preferred, but alcohol-based hand sanitizers will also work against the coronavirus.
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Facts not fear: Putting COVID-19 into context
The majority of people who have coronavirus will get better without any long-term effects, according to an Oregon doctor. About 82% of cases tend to be mild. In these cases, symptoms diminish over five to seven days, although people are still capable of transmitting the disease. But there are many people with a higher risk of having a more severe disease if they are diagnosed with coronavirus, including those with heart disease, diabetes, asthma and other vascular disease problems.
Also, most children who get it have mild symptoms.
To put the coronavirus numbers in context, millions of Americans get the flu every single year and there are thousands of flu deaths annually.
Since October 2019, the CDC estimates around 32 million Americans have gotten the flu. That’s one in every 10 Americans.
Since the coronavirus outbreak began late last year, there have been around 80,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in China. That means those cases account for just around .0056% of China's population.”
Facts not fear: More on coronavirus
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