According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "heat at 56°C [132.8°F] kills the SARS coronavirus at around 10000 units per 15 minutes." The SARS coronavirus behaves similarly to COVID-19, which leads experts to believe that the novel coronavirus would have a similar fate at that temperature.
How does it work exactly? Well, heat is thought to affect the coronavirus in part because it is an enveloped virus with a lipid bilayer. According to BBC, "research on other enveloped viruses suggests that this oily coat makes the viruses more susceptible to heat than those that do not have one."
Since outdoor temperatures rarely reach anywhere near 132.8°F, however, experts do not believe warmer weather will have any significant impact on the novel coronavirus. "While we may expect modest declines in the contagiousness of SARS-CoV-2 in warmer, wetter weather … is not reasonable to expect these declines alone to slow transmission enough to make a big dent," writes Marc Lipsitch, DPhil, director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Similarly, "if you do your laundry and dry on high heat for an hour, the virus is probably dead," says Traxler.
Additionally, boiled water can be effective against coronavirus. Water boils at 100°C (212°F) and a dishwasher's final rinse cycle is generally around 71.1°C (160°F), which makes it the ideal place to disinfect everything from children's toys to sponges.
So, while boiled water or the temperature inside your dishwasher or dryer can help combat the coronavirus, high summer temperatures likely don't have the same effect. And if you're concerned about what's to come with COVID-19.
Comments
Post a Comment