THURSDAY, Oct. 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Regardless of what you may have heard, mouthwash won’t protect you from COVID-19<\/a>, experts say.<\/p>\n A new study had suggested that mouthwash might incapacitate the cold<\/a> virus, and that it “may provide an additional level of protection against” the new coronavirus.<\/p>\n But be cautious when interpreting the findings, experts told The New York Times<\/i>. Not only did the study not test for COVID-19<\/a>, but it also didn’t test if mouthwash affects how the virus is spread.<\/p>\n “I don’t have a problem with using Listerine,” Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University, told the Times<\/i>. “But it’s not an antiviral.”<\/p>\n The lab study, published last month in the Journal of Medical Virology<\/i>, only looked at the coronavirus 229E, which causes common colds — not the new coronavirus, SARS<\/a>-CoV-2.<\/p>\n Although the viruses<\/a> are in the same family, they aren’t interchangeable, Rasmussen told the newspaper.<\/p>\n Also, the tests were not done on actual people. The human mouth, full of nooks and crannies and lots of chemicals, is more complicated than a laboratory dish. Nothing should be considered conclusive “unless human studies are performed,” Dr. Maricar Malinis, an infectious disease expert at Yale University, told the Times<\/i>.<\/p>\n Rasmussen added that viruses<\/a> inside cells are shielded from the fast-acting chemicals found in these products. “It’s not like your cells get infected and then they secrete a bunch of virus and they’re done,” she said. “Infected cells are constantly making more virus.”<\/p>\n Relying on mouthwash or a nasal rinse to kill a virus is as futile as trimming the tops of weeds, but not the roots, and expecting the weeds to disappear, she added.<\/p>\n ![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
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