Should we be spraying surfaces, and ourselves, with an off-the-shelf mosquito repellent to tackle the spread of Covid-19? The Ministry of Defence has revealed that it has been issuing soldiers with Mosi-guard natural, a spray derived from eucalyptus oil and manufactured by a small company called Citrefine, in Leeds, from the beginning of the Covid crisis. The spray has been tested by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and found to have a rapid effect on reducing levels of the virus when sprayed onto surfaces. It did not, however, succeed in eliminating the virus altogether.
In one test, the product was sprayed onto latex synthetic skin an hour before being exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes Covid-19. Four hours later, levels of the virus were found to be only one hundredth of what they were on a surface which hadn’t been sprayed with the product.
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