The belief that furious hand-washing fends off coronavirus doesn't seem to have any factual basis, doctor and award-winning journalist Bob Arnot told Larry King, noting that self-isolation is the best strategy to stay healthy.
Appearing on RT America's Politicking, Doctor Bob Arnot, former chief medical correspondent for NBC and CBS news, said that the current emphasis on washing hands was perpetuating a myth that has yet to be substantiated by evidence.
You can wash your hands all day long, but you're still going to get [coronavirus] if someone next to you coughs… No one has proven it yet that people are getting it from touching surfaces.
Arnot was also suspicious of the suggestion that handshakes could be swapped out for touching elbows.
"Elbow handshake doesn't work because you want to be six feet or more away from other people," he noted. He stressed that self-isolation was by far the most prudent tactic for avoiding the illness, and speculated that if everybody stayed indoors for three weeks, the virus would "burn out" completely.
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