How Did Lizol Know About the Coronavirus Before It Happened?
The coronavirus, which made headlines, was not known to science until the end of 2019. However, people are posting pictures of old Lysol and Clorox tissue bottles claiming their contents could kill the coronavirus. What gives?
This is not evidence of a conspiracy. It’s just a confusion in the name. This coronavirus is new, but before it there were many coronaviruses, both humans and animals. For example, here’s a 1970 article that describes three different strains of the human coronavirus. Heck, the photo we posted with yesterday’s article on coronavirus was taken in 2008 .
You’ve heard of coronaviruses before, even if you don’t know the name. SARS , the respiratory virus that caused the international outbreak in 2003, was the coronavirus. MERS , another respiratory virus first identified in 2012, is also a coronavirus.
You may have had a coronavirus too. About a third of common colds are caused by rhinoviruses . Other culprits are respiratory syncytial virus , adenovirus and … yes. Coronaviruses. “Most people are infected with these viruses at some point in their lives,” – said in a statement CDC in its page of coronavirus and lists four strains that cause colds.
Lysol has tested its product for viruses “similar to” 2019-nCoV, according to their website . Factcheck.org says it has been tested specifically against the 229E strain, one of those that causes the common cold.