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Thread on how a Covid story I was working on last year almost turned into a #Handelsblatt moment of my own. It started when a hand sanitiser manufacturer got in touch to say their product kept failing the test to show it killed viruses, and so did their rivals'... https://twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1353999453028577280
2/ This manufacturer had 75% alcohol in their gel, well above the gov's 60% min recommendation, but when they sent it off for the standardised test to prove it killed viruses, it failed. Competitors were having the same problem. Others weren't even testing theirs.
3/ Was it possible these gels we were using everywhere - at restaurants, on trains, at work, in our homes - did not kill Covid? I contacted microbiology & chemical analysis labs that test these products - they confirmed many were failing the test.
4/ I contacted brands, supermarkets and pharmacies. Many didn't respond, but most that did admitted their products, or many of the products they stocked, had not passed or had not been tested against viruses.
5/ Most of these companies protested that these products did not claim to kill viruses, but were consumers aware of that small print? An 800% rise in hand sanitiser sales over the past year would suggest not.
6/ I wrote the story. It looked strong, and despite nobody I spoke to denying it, there was a nagging feeling something was wrong. The implications were huge, so it was decided yet more checking was needed before publication.
7/ The virus test we use in the UK (and EU) for hand sanitisers encompasses all viruses. To pass, a product must kill 99.99%. I had not seen data to suggest Covid was easier to kill than other viruses, so did not think this would affect the story. I was wrong.
8/ Eventually, an academic sent me a paywalled study on sanitisers & Covid-19 specifically. It showed it could be killed with as little as 30% alcohol. In other words, even if hand gels are not killing every virus (so not passing the test), they almost certainly kill Covid.
9/ While the premise of the story remained true - that most hand sanitisers have not passed the only industry-wide test against viruses, and many have not even checked - what it implied - that hand sanitisers are unlikely to kill Covid - was not.
10/ Published on the BBC website, this would have been read my millions, and would have made many people stop using sanitiser that would otherwise help keep them safe. And the thought of that still makes me feel slightly ill. END
