The right way to clean and disinfect household surfaces

Free article. By this point in the coronavirus pandemic, most of us know how to properly wash our hands — wet, lather, scrub, rinse, dry — but we may be less clear on the proper way to sanitize the various surfaces in our home. And like many aspects of our current situation, there is a lot of misinformation and hype about which areas of our home need vigilant attention. To get the hard facts on what to worry about at home, and what not to, I turned to three experts.

To begin, we need to understand that most of us will not contract covid-19 by staying at home. Joseph Vinetz, a Yale Medicine infectious disease specialist, says: “We have no evidence whatsoever that people can get this virus at home. Period.” Unless, of course, somebody who has been exposed enters your house and coughs, sneezes or is in close proximity to you for more than 15 minutes. The real risk of contracting the disease is going out in public.

Vinetz says that people need to think logically; if you are quarantined at home and no one in your house is infected or showing symptoms, then regular good household hygiene should be sufficient. Continue reading.