While a Republican senator suggested people consider mouthwash as a way to prevent COVID-19 infection, Listerine does not want customers to use its product to prevent or treat the virus.
Listerine “is not intended to prevent or treat COVID-19 and should be used only as directed on the product label,” said a website run by the company. According to The Washington Post, Listerine manufactures some of the most widely used mouthwash products in the world.
“No mouthwash in the market has been approved by the FDA for the treatment or prevention of [COVID-19],” said Crest, another popular mouthwash manufacturer.
Even with easily accessible warnings from these companies, GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin touted mouthwash as a way to defend against the virus during a town hall meeting Wednesday. His words garnered immediate criticism.
“Standard gargle, mouthwash, has been proven to kill the coronavirus,” Johnson said, according to an audio recording of his remarks. “If you get it, you may reduce viral replication. Why not try all these things?”
A study of 176 patients Johnson shared on Twitter did find that use of mouthwash reduced the viral load in saliva. However, this does not mean that it is an effective prevention or treatment method as most infections occur in the nose.
“Even if gargling kills some of the virus, it won’t be able to clean the nasal area, nor the viruses that’s already penetrated deeper into the body,” said Kim Woo-Joo, an infectious-disease expert at Korea University.
Johnson has been criticized before for promoting treatments that have not been proved effective against COVID-19, and YouTube suspended his account this year for violating the company’s medical misinformation policies. He has backed the use of ivermectin – an anti-parasitic drug often used to treat livestock – and hydroxychloroquine, which has been used to treat autoimmune diseases such as lupus.
The FDA has warned against using both ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as COVID-19 treatments.
Johnson also posted a letter opposing vaccine mandates on Twitter Wednesday and has questioned the efficacy of vaccines, said The Washington Post.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and prevention, vaccines approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are safe and effective.
The senator could not be immediately reached for comment by The Washington Post.
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