Antibacterial products for a virus - really??

I just bought two hand wash yesterday , one for the house and one for the car for when I have been out shopping touching handles on trolleys etc , I did buy Wrights coal tar soap too, I don't know if it any prevention against the coronavirus but it smells good and clean ,

Ordinary soap and water is sufficient to wash a virus away. Those gels etc don't even work on norovirus.
All I've got is a bottle of Dettol for handles and doorknobs.

Carbolic handwash if you can get it.

If you’re worried about your hands when out and about keep your gloves on
If disinfectants kill the virus can’t we just put dettol on our hands

The annoying thing is that when people buy up all the gel, they are preventing others from using it, so increasing their own chances of getting the virus.

This from the New York Times:

Coronaviruses are relatively easy to destroy, Professor Whittaker said. Using a simple disinfectant on a surface is nearly guaranteed to break the delicate envelope that surrounds the tiny microbe, rendering it harmless.

I’ve read the same elsewhere. I don’t think WHO, the NHS , the CDC and other agencies would be repeating the advice to wash our hands if there was no point.

An old man asked an assistant in asda for some bacterial gel and she told him they were out of stock, he replied that he had a dozen or so at home but his wife had sent him for more. The assist told me many people are the same. Annoying to think they will be binned after this scare.

I don’t condone panic-buying but anti-bacterial gels serve a purpose. It’s not always possible to access soap & water when one is out and about and touching things like hand rails, pin-pads, trolleys and so on.

Coronavirus is killed by gels with a high enough alcohol content so they do work.

I’m not sure anyone has suggested that bacterial diseases have disappeared. What a strange idea.

You can't use soap and water when you are out and about, eg on public transport, and many people are disgusting when it comes to personal hygiene at the best of times.

I have always carried a tiny bottle of hand sanitiser in my bag, but can't get any just now. I don't think that it is responsible to buy huge quantities of it, though - people with compromised immune systems (eg chemotherapy patients) actually need this stuff, and can't get it because of idiots who have bought it by the dozen.

I heard someone say that they won't get pneumonia because they've had the vaccine (against bacterial pneumonia - not viral)!

Vodka isn't strong enough:

www.who.int/gpsc/5may/Guide_to_Local_Production.pdf

Exactly!!

Yes, but why not use either soap and water or, as has been suggested on another thread, vodka? That would leave the antibacterial hand gel for places which really need it.

You can use an anti bacterial gel to kill the Coronavirus as long as it has at least 80% alcohol content