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Deborah García Bello (A Coruña, 1984) Chemist and scientific disseminator. He just published in the Paidós publishing house the electronic book Do not touch: Science against disinformation in the Covid-19 pandemic .

Is there a lot of misinformation around the coronavirus? Yes, there is misinformation. So much so that the World Health Organization (WHO) had to take out some cards to share on social networks and try to mitigate all the hoaxes that were emerging, especially with regard to magical treatments and alleged conspiracy origins of the virus. There is disinformation and you have to fight it. What is the biggest stupid thing you have come across? Well, there is a very crazy one, not to believe: that of fireworks. Apparently the hoax was spread that you could end the coronavirus by launching firecrackers and fireworks, and the WHO had to specifically deny it. Here in Spain I did not see that rumor spread, but in other places it must have been done so that the WHO would come out denying it. How can you prevent this cataract of disinformation from circulating? The first thing is not to share any message we receive. When we get something that sounds a little weird we should not share it, just in case, just in case it is wrong. When in doubt, better not to share. Is your book an antidote to this misinformation? I have assumed that my role is to be a speaker of what the health authorities say and, within my field of knowledge, try to explain them. Why are there some recommendations and not others? Why do they say this then? Try to explain the possible reasons that have led to a recommendation, always assuming that the recommendation may change, which is the most difficult thing to assume. It happened, for example, with masks, which at first were said not to be used and then yes. It is natural that there are these changes, but people find it very difficult to understand it, it seems to them that they are errors when it is simply adapting to what we have before us. And do you think that the Spanish authorities are communicating well? Yes and no, not everything, not all good. What generates the most insecurity are sudden changes, like the one we have experienced with children. And that results in many people thinking that decisions are being made in a crazy way. Is there really science in whether or not children should go out? No, there is no scientific evidence that one option is better than the other. If we had more scientific evidence on how children can affect the spread of the virus, maybe there would be science behind it. But the truth is there are more conjectures and speculations than solid evidence. I don't know the science, but common sense does say that if children go for a walk they will interact less with other people than if they go to the supermarket or to the pharmacy, right? I think so. It seems more appropriate for a child to walk than to take him to a pharmacy or a supermarket, but there is no science involved. How do we get rid of the coronavirus? There are two ways to get rid of it. One is using surfactants, which we find in soap for washing our hands and in laundry detergent, the latter much stronger but the chemical performance is the same. What both soaps and detergents do is that they dissolve the viral envelope of the coronavirus, which is a lipid layer, a kind of fat. They make it soluble in water, so that the virus goes with the water down the drain, like when you have a dish stained with oil: if you rub it well with the detergent and rinse it with water, the fat will go away. mode? We can get rid of the virus in a more drastic way using bleach or alcohol. These substances act by denaturing part of the coronavirus viral envelope. Because that envelope, apart from that fat, has protuberances that are proteins, and those proteins in contact with the lye or with the alcohol denature them, they begin to oxidize and you finish them off. If the virus comes into contact with bleach or alcohol, it is inactive in less than a minute. You destroy it by contact. A very personal question, why should you wash clothes at 60º? The health authorities gave this recommendation for those who live with a sick person or with infected people as a precautionary measure. Because from 60º degrees you load everything: practically 100% of bacteria, viruses of absolutely any potentially pathogenic microorganism. So, should you wash your hands at 60º? No. Washing clothes at 60º is a general recommendation for any viral or bacterial infection. If someone is infected with coronavirus or is sick, they must be extremely careful, they cannot risk catching a bacterial infection, for example, their immune system is already fighting something like putting another pathogen in. I read in your book that I have to throw away the spoons and wooden spatulas. Why? They are banned in the food industry. For many reasons. The first, because wood is also a porous and chipping material, and that is dangerous from a microbiology point of view. Bacteria nest very well in wood. And when bacteria find a material they are comfortable with and can proliferate, they set up their own city, what we call biofilm. They begin to organize, to make their own urbanizations, they strategically place themselves to become more resistant - in the top layer those bacteria that do well with oxygen, so that they protect those that are anaerobic, that are located below -, and to become more resistant they begin to secrete some substances such as sugars. And when you have already established a biofilm, all that bacterial community, there is no one to destroy it. It doesn't matter if you squirt pure bleach: the biofilm is practically indestructible. The typical wooden spatula with the tip as wet and tender that we have all had in the kitchen at one time is terror, because there you already have a biofilm. And this can also happen in kitchen cloths, on the scouring pad and on the cutting board for vegetables ... And can there also be coronaviruses? The biofilm is formed exclusively by bacteria, which are living beings. Viruses don't do any of that. Viruses, outside the body, are like a speck of dust. Within a body they behave like living beings, they begin to multiply and it seems that they have functions of living beings. But if they are not parasitizing anyone, they do nothing. A virus on a wood is there and it is there, it does not multiply.Another thing: if you do not leave the house, is it necessary to disinfect the door knobs, switches, television control, etc.? If you do not leave the house, of course it is not necessary. You put those hygiene measures into practice if someone has left the house. If my husband goes to the supermarket, when he comes back he takes off his shoes and leaves them at the door, he puts the laundry in, he washes his hands well, we disinfect what he has touched ... But if you don't leave the house it is not necessary, the virus will not enter through a window. People ask me a lot: if I don't leave the house, do I have to wash my hands frequently? No, not more than normal. What do we do with the dogs' paws after taking them for a walk? Taking off their shoes when entering the house is not only due to the coronavirus: it was a dirty one then and it is now. The problem is not only the coronavirus, from the street you can bring any other pathogen, dog poop, crap ... What Orientals do to leave shoes at the door we should always do, not only because of this pandemic. And with pets the same, because every time they leave the house they are in direct contact with the ground. Ideally, we should have a basin with soap and water at the entrance of the house and that when we return we clean them a little. Another question: should food and food containers also be cleaned with a dilute bleach solution? Yes and no. Not because there is no described case of contagion through food and because the health authorities affirm that it would be a remote possibility that some virus would remain in a container or on top of a food, so in principle we would not have to worry about no food. But we are in a pandemic and we do not know all the routes of spread of the virus. So, as a precaution, I think it costs nothing to put a cloth with the bleach solution that we all should have prepared on the food packages. What is the most common mistake we make? Well, I think the most common mistake is that We are not very clear on the yardstick of what to do and what not to do. We give importance to things that are not so important. Let me explain: the main recommendations of the health authorities are to keep the distance between people, wash our hands frequently with soap and water and avoid touching our faces. And since we find things very easy to do, very affordable, we do not give them importance and it seems more important to us if we wear a mask or not. There are people who put on a surgical mask and become emboldened, get closer to others, or touch their faces and fail to comply with basic measures. People put on a surgical mask, assume they are protected, and behave a little more recklessly. And what a surgical mask really does is protect others if you are a carrier of the virus, but it does not prevent that if an infected person touches you, speaks to you and coughs on you, you are not going to be infected. that science will succeed in stopping this 'bug', right? If science does not succeed, nothing will. Either it is science or it is nothing. So all my hopes are pinned on science.

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