Senator Ron Johnson Now Peddles Mouthwash As A Covid-19 Treatment: His Advice Exemplifies The Rising Tide Of Anti-Science

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is now peddling mouthwash as a Covid-19 treatment. At a town hall event this week, Johnson declared:

“Standard gargle, mouthwash, has been proven to kill the coronavirus. If you get it, you may reduce viral replication. Why not try all these things?”

However, there is no scientific proof that Listerine kills the coronavirus in the mouth. The maker of Listerine unequivocally states that “there no evidence-based clinical conclusions with regards to the anti-viral efficacy of Listerine antiseptic mouthwash … more research is needed to understand whether mouthwashes can impact viral transmission, exposure, viral entry, viral load and ultimately affect meaningful clinical outcomes.”

In a laboratory, one study published in the Journal of Medical Virology suggested that certain mouthwashes can inactivate human coronaviruses. But, this study did not test the inactivating capacity of mouthwashes on the specific virus, SARS-CoV-2, that causes Covid-19. Another study, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, did find that oral rinses inactivated SARS-CoV-2 in a laboratory. However, neither study tested the inactivating capacity of mouthwashes in human mouths. Rather they involved testing in petri dishes in the laboratory.

Even if it were true that mouthwashes do have some degree of inactivating capacity vis-à-vis SARS-CoV-2 in the mouth, the mouth is certainly not the only place where the coronavirus may reside. SARS-CoV-2 is a respiratory virus and typically infects cells in your respiratory tract, from your nasal passage to your lungs.

The manufacturer of Listerine has emphatically rejected claims that mouthwash is a Covid-19 cure. The company’s website dedicates an entire page to explaining that “the current available data is not sufficient to support a conclusion that the use of Listerine mouthwash is helpful against the Covid-19 virus.”

A charitable take on Senator Ron Johnson is that he is a Covid-19 contrarian; a person who questions mainstream views. However, Johnson doesn’t stop at critiquing scientists and government regulators. He aggressively pushes anti-science and Covid-19 misinformation.

It would be one thing if Johnson was a marginal figure in Congress. But, he is not. In December 2020, as Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, he sought to elevate fringe Covid-19 theories by inviting controversial witnesses to testify at an important Senate Committee hearing on Covid-19.

His assembled cast of extraordinarily unorthodox witnesses opposed every aspect of the public health consensus on Covid-19. The witnesses included a prominent vaccine skeptic, an outspoken critic of masking and social distancing, and several physicians who promoted the use of ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug for which there is no scientific evidence that it is efficacious against Covid-19.

Besides having a penchant for spreading false claims and misinformation, Johnson is prone to bizarre personal attacks, especially targeted at preeminent figures in the scientific establishment. For example, he said that Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, “overhypes Covid-19, same as he did with AIDS.”

Such comments are inane. More than 700,000 people have died of AIDS in the U.S. alone, and 37.7 million people worldwide. Moreover, Covid-19 has already killed nearly 800,000 people in the U.S alone, and more than 5.3 million around the globe. And, both pandemics are far from over.

The outlandishness of his comments notwithstanding, Senator Johnson’s statements matter. So, when he publicly states that he won’t get vaccinated, repeatedly asserts that the dangers of Covid-19 are overblown, and that the public health response imposes too many restrictions on people’s liberties, he’s influencing the actions of his ardent supporters in harmful ways.

Throughout the pandemic, at practically every juncture, Johnson has actively undermined public health in America by promoting conspiracy theories about Covid-19 and the use of drugs that have shown no evidence that they are effective in treating the disease, such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. His latest foray into quackery – the promotion of Listerine as a Covid-19 treatment – encapsulates the rising tide of anti-science that he and his fellow charlatans encourage.