Researchers of the 2020 study themselves stressed the fact that the findings were preliminary and more research is needed before this theory can hold true, according to CTV News.
Geneticist Chana Davis said, via HuffPost, “I think this is a trend that we see over and over again in science … just because something worked in a lab, in a very controlled experiment, doesn’t always mean it’s going to translate into the real world. And this just really hasn’t yet been proven to move the needle in the real world.” The studies done so far are small and short-term, per Medical News Today.
Plus, as Healthline reported, your throat is not the only place you should be thinking about when it comes to hygiene. Coronavirus is a concern in nasal passages too. So even if you were to rinse your mouth with mouthwash whatever chance you got on an airplane and kill off any viruses there, you’d still be carrying some in your nose. Per Davis, you can still spread the virus via the simple act of breathing (via HuffPost). “The issue is … that most transmission is through your exhaled breath, and so by washing your mouth, you’re not getting rid of the virus in your lungs that you’re then exhaling into the world,” explained the scientist.
