Alcohol cures COVID-19

The argument

One argument says that alcohol is a disinfectant therefore spraying alcohol on your body will kill the virus. A newspaper in India claimed that drinking alcohol will help you prevent COVID-19.

Context

(ALERT: Visit the WHO for accurate information about the coronavirus pandemic) There has been a conspiracy circulating online that alcohol can cure Coronavirus or prevent you from catching it in the first place.

Premises

Counter-arguments

The World Health Organization has debunked this argument on their COVID-19 myth busting page. The WHO declared that spraying alcohol (or chlorine) on your body will not prevent you from getting COVID-19 and can also harm you. Indian Boomlive Newspaper has debunked the claim that drinking alcohol will keep the COVID-19 at bay. There is absolutely no evidence that alcohol will prevent people from getting COVID-19.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The inference confuses two different settings. High-concentration alcohol inactivates virus particles on a surface through direct contact at sufficient concentration and contact time; skin is not a surface being disinfected of an established infection, and a respiratory virus replicates inside cells in the airway and lungs, which sprayed alcohol does not reach. Spraying it on the body also carries its own hazards — injury to eyes and mucous membranes, skin irritation, and flammability — which is why the World Health Organization advised against the practice. [Rejecting P2] Publication in a newspaper is not evidence, and this specific claim was checked and rejected by Indian fact-checkers, as the counter notes. The suggestion also inverts the health advice on record: heavy drinking is associated with impaired immune function and worse outcomes in respiratory infection, and consumption of improperly produced spirits in response to claims of this kind caused documented deaths from methanol poisoning during the pandemic. No alcoholic drink prevents or treats a viral infection.