We're seeing more antiviral products popping up that claim to protect you against COVID-19.
Pakistan-based denim company Artistic Denim Mills is making pants and masks using antiviral technology it says tested nearly 100% effective in 30 minutes against coronavirus.
Denim brand Diesel is planning to add different antiviral technology to its jeans next year that it says can disable nearly all viral activity within two hours of contact.
Other companies are selling antibacterial gloves that claim to destroy bacteria and micro-organisms.
These are big claims, but are they true?
“The people that we shouldn't trust, honestly, are the people that stand to gain financially from this,” said Dr. Mark Shrime, a professor at Harvard Medical School. “Not because they're necessarily nefarious, but they have an ulterior motive to market these products to our uncertainty and to our fear without necessarily doing the due diligence that we might want them to do in less uncertain times.”
Shrime says we don't know a lot about how COVID-19 spreads on surfaces. There are no confirmed cases of surface transmission so far.
He questions if these products actually do anything for you.
“For sure, they haven't been rigorously tested,” said Shrime. “You will see things often that they have been scientifically formulated or other words like that, that make it sound like this is super cool, but they haven't necessarily been rigorously tested to see if they actually prevent the virus.”
He points to antibacterial soaps that were all the rage for a while. The Food and Drug Administration later said they're no more effective than regular soap and water.
He says instead of paying extra for what companies say is extra protection, focus on what we know works – wash your hands and wear a mask.