The 4 Myths Of Covid-19 No One’s Telling You

Fact or fiction?

How do you differentiate between the two?

What’s a lie and what’s the truth?

It seems like we’ve constantly been asking ourselves these questions throughout the whole pandemic.

2 whole years (and probably more to come) of deciding who and what to believe when it comes to COVID-19.

But never fret! The team at In-Tec are here to put a stop to all the bogus myths and fake news about COVID-19, especially when it comes to cleaning for the virus. In this article, we’re going to debunk the top 4 COVID-19 myths so that you don’t have to.

Let the myth-busting begin!

The 4 misconceptions about COVID-19

Don’t get us wrong. There are plenty of myths out there about COVID-19. I mean, the list is endless.

But instead of going through random misconceptions like spraying alcohol on your body or drinking chlorine (and yes, people believed this…), we’re going to tailor the majority of these myths to Covid-19 cleaning.

Let’s bust a myth (you know, like the song “bust a move”).

1.   You only need to disinfect; you don’t need to clean beforehand

“Disinfecting alone is more powerful than cleaning.”

To put it simply – this is far from the truth!

Cleaning and disinfecting actually go hand-in-hand. You can’t disinfect a surface until you clean it properly first.

Why?

Cleaning is considered to be the first step to achieving optimal decontamination. Cleaning removes all visible contaminants such as dirt, dust, and grime from surfaces. After all, if you don’t clean the surface, all you’ll be doing is spreading the particles instead of picking them up.

Imagine if you had spilt oil on your kitchen bench. You wouldn’t go and spray a cleaning solution on the bench until you’d picked up the visible mess first.

The same goes for the cleaning and disinfecting process.

And just remember, cleaning is surface level – it doesn’t kill or thoroughly remove germs, bacteria, and viruses.

But, it’s actually the most important step to complete because without it, the rest is for nothing. Do not let your germ-killing efforts go to waste by failing to thoroughly clean before applying disinfectant!

Always clean before you disinfect for COVID-19.

MYTH BUSTED.

2.   COVID-19 is just like the flu

While COVID-19 and the flu share similar symptoms, they should not be confused as the same thing. In fact, there are quite a few distinctions between the few, so let’s dissect those here.

COVID-19 is far more contagious, seems to behave more erratically in the body, and has caused more serious illnesses and deaths than the flu.

Think about it. How often do you hear that someone has passed away from the flu?

I’m guessing your answer was “not often” or “not at all.”

Your answer would certainly have been different if I asked about COVID-19 instead.

COVID-19 particles also tend to linger in the air longer than the flu, and the incubation period is much longer. On average, the incubation period for COVID is 2 to 14 days whilst for the flu, it’s 1 to 4 days.

After taking a look at these few differences, they really aren’t the same, are they?

MYTH BUSTED.

3.   COVID-19 is very transmissible via surfaces

The keyword in the heading is ‘very.’

Because yes, COVID-19 is transmissible via surfaces, however, the chance of you catching it from a surface is so low.

During the early days of the pandemic, we didn’t have much information about how the virus was transmitted. We understood that it could be spread via contaminated surfaces which is why we all believed sanitising our hands was the best protection.

But that wasn’t the case, as current evidence suggests.

Because as we all know, COVID-19 is most transmissible via small aerolized droplets such as sneezes and coughs – hence the facemasks.

So what does this all mean?

Well, during the entirety of the pandemic, we constantly saw retail and hospitality businesses frantically “disinfecting” and wiping down surfaces after they were touched by an individual.

However, unless a positive case or close contact have visited a business, then there really is no need to conduct rigorous Covid-19 cleaning at your workplace. Now we aren’t saying that you shouldn’t be cleaning high touchpoints regularly like door handles, light switches etc, it just doesn’t need to be done excessively.

MYTH BUSTED.

4.   Any household cleaning chemical can kill COVID-19

If you’re heading off to the local shops to buy a cleaning solution to kill COVID-19, make sure you choose the right one, because not all of them will do the job.

For instance, if you were thinking about buying Ajax spray and wipe…think again – it’s not verified to kill COVID-19. Although it’s an ‘antibacterial’ cleaner, the ingredients themselves cannot eliminate coronavirus.

Before you head out to make your purchase, be sure to look at the TGA certified COVID-19 disinfectants list. These TGA approved disinfectants generally have at least a 70% concentration of alcohol or a 1000 parts per million concentration of chlorine bleach (sodium hypochlorite).

One thing to be aware of is if you’re using chlorine bleach, you have to achieve the correct dilution rates for the solution to be effective.

When the team at In-Tec conduct COVID-19 deep cleans, we have 3 specific disinfectants for the job. The first is a hospital-grade chemical solution, while the other two are environmentally friendly cleaning solutions. 

• Oxivir – a disinfecting product that is fast and extremely effective. Oxivir is based on Accelerated Hydrogen Peroxide and kills SARS-CoV-2 in 15 seconds!
• eWater – the eWater disinfectant is proven by the TGA to kill SARS-CoV-2. It’s a ready to use, on-demand solution that is comprised of only water, salt, and electricity.
• Tersano – a simple and sustainable way to clean, sanitise, and deodorise. It kills up to 99.999% of germs including SARS-CoV-2 (the TGA in Australia has not verified Tersano for this however other countries such as the USA have).

So, if you were under the assumption that any household cleaning product can kill COVID-19, then think again.

You want to ensure that you’re using a TGA approved disinfectant when cleaning for COVID-19.

MYTH BUSTED.

COVID-19 myths versus facts – what you should and shouldn’t believe

If you think about it, the novel coronavirus is in fact, two outbreaks.

First, is the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the disease.

And second, is a severe outbreak of misinformation. This may not seem much at first, but misinformation can be just as dangerous as the virus itself.

Sure, there are heaps and heaps of myths out there about COVID-19, but the ones that were debunked in this article are quite important.

You want to ensure that you’re cleaning your workplace and home the correct way and with the correct solutions/chemicals.

If you find yourself sitting there wondering how the team at In-Tec cleans for COVID-19 and other virus outbreaks, read our article What is Commercial Deep Cleaning? We go through the exact 4-step deep clean process our cleaners conduct on your site.