Why Drinking Disinfectant & Co Does Not Kill The Coronavirus

The deadly misconception of killing the virus by drinking disinfectant or other harmful substances

Over the last months, many reports have surfaced about people who drank substances such as rubbing alcohol, hand sanitizer, bleach, concentrated alcohol, or fish tank cleaner to “neutralize” the virus inside their body.

All of them ended up in the emergency room, some of them died from the damage they’ve done to their bodies. This false conception was mainly sparked by suggestions voiced by President Donald Trump, who later brushed them off as sarcastic remarks.

It appears to be a common misconception that just because disinfectant is said to kill off the virus on surfaces, it must also achieve this when consumed. But this is not the case. The reason for that is the metabolism of your body. Instead of killing the virus, it may only kill you.

How alcohol destroys a virus

One of the most important components of most cells, including those of viruses, are proteins.

Proteins are essential building blocks to fulfill important roles for a cell. They are part of the so-called cell membrane. The Covid-19 virus, also known as the coronavirus, has its name from a “crown” of proteins sitting on its surface.

Alcohol attacks and destroys these proteins, essentially ripping the virus apart.

Note that alcohol works best if diluted in distilled water, as it diffuses and penetrates cell membranes more easily. This means that a 70% rubbing alcohol solution is in fact more effective than a 90% one. A 70% solution contains 30% distilled water, helping with diffusion, while a 90% solution only contains 10% distilled water.

Imagine your disinfectant is oil and your virus cells are crevices and holes in a rough surface. Pure oil will be thick and have a harder time entering smaller crevices and holes, while diluted oil will enter even smaller holes. That’s why a 70% solution is more effective than a 90% solution.

Many people buy the 90% solution, believing it is stronger and therefore more effective at disinfecting.

What happens when you drink rubbing alcohol?

Since President Donald Trump has made questionable suggestions regarding the consumption or injection of disinfectants and alcohol to protect from Covid-19, many people have called medical hotlines to inquire about the possibilities of using alcohol or disinfectant in that manner. This is irresponsible, dangerous, and to be honest, a completely moronic suggestion.

The chemical name of rubbing alcohol is isopropyl alcohol. Its chemical composition consists of three carbons and an alcohol molecule. When you drink isopropyl alcohol, it gets absorbed by your stomach and transported into the liver. Your body has no use for the long isopropyl alcohol chain and needs to break it down into smaller pieces it can use.

Your body’s metabolism will break down large chains into smaller ones. For isopropyl alcohol, this means it will use a process called alcohol-dehydrogenase to remove the hydrogen molecules from the chain. What we are left with is called acetone. You might know acetone as nail polish remover. It is also one of three types of ketones, an overdose of which can also occur in diabetics through a process called ketoacidosis.

The acetone will dilute in your bloodstream and spread throughout your body. Acetone reaching your brain interferes with the signaling of your brain, which can cause headaches, nausea, slurred speech, and in higher doses even induce a coma.

Nail polish remover — Acetone — still has disinfectant capabilities. But due to the dilution within your body, it never reaches your lungs, where the coronavirus settles, in sufficiently high amounts to destroy the virus. Instead, it will interfere with your body and cause damage to your brain and organs.

This is what happens when you drink rubbing alcohol. It won’t help you. But it will leave you in a similar state as a diabetic suffering from ketoacidosis.

What happens when you drink industrial alcohol?

More than 300 people in Iran died from drinking industrial alcohol. They hoped to protect themselves from Covid-19.

Industrial alcohol, also known as denatured alcohol, is a form of ethanol (the drinkable alcohol you get in vodka, whiskey etc.) which also contains another type of alcohol called methanol.

Apart from containing methanol, industrial alcohol is no different from regular alcohol. The methanol is added to make it “undrinkable”, so it can be sold without heavy taxation that is applied to alcoholic beverages.

If you decide to drink it anyway, this can cause serious damage to your body. Methanol goes through the process of alcohol-dehydrogenase in your liver, where it gets broken down into formaldehyde and finally into methanoic acid.

In low amounts, methanoic acid is not dangerous to the human body. It is used as a food additive and can easily be broken down further by the liver. However, if it is produced as a byproduct of metabolizing methanol, large amounts of it can enter the bloodstream. Here, the acid will cause the acidity of the bloodstream to rise above healthy levels (Acidemia) and is capable of damaging the optical nerves, causing blindness.

It will not kill any virus in your lungs though, so don’t drink it.

What happens when you drink bleach?

The “Genesis II Church of Health and Healing” has tried selling a miraculous “MMS — Miracle Mineral Supplement”, which apart from the current corona crisis has been falsely advertised to cure autism, malaria, and more. It consists of industrial bleach.

It does not cure you of anything and can cause great damage to your body. Industrial bleach is an equilibrium of multiple chemicals, such as sodium hydroxide and hypochlorous acid.

When you drink industrial bleach, this solution will react with the inside of your throat and esophagus, stripping the lipids (fats) off your cells and spilling their contents. It then reacts with the released proteins, forming soap. This destruction of your cell tissue is known as chemical burns and undoubtedly painful.

It will get nowhere near your lungs. It will not cure you of the virus. And if you were to somehow get it into your lungs, it would simply liquify them same as it liquifies your esophagus when you drink it.

Doing these things will not cure you of the virus nor protect you from it

What’s even worse, medical staff would have to waste precious resources to save your life, while those who really are in need of medical attention will be kept waiting. So please, don’t drink any of these substances. Use them to disinfect surfaces, use them to clean your bathroom.

But don’t use them as a magical cure. Not only will it possibly cause your death. It will also hurt the whole time dying.

And as a final note, regular alcohol (ethanol) does not cure you either. It loses any disinfecting abilities when it gets broken down by your liver into other chemical compounds. But at least you’re drunk and happy. It’s definitely smarter than drinking bleach or rubbing alcohol.

Kevin is an editor and writer for the ILLUMINATION and Polyglot Poetry publications. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn. Here are three stories of other writers I enjoyed and recommend: