[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by IndySam

When it comes to most viruses hand sanitizer does little more than move them around your hands.

Originally Posted by ElvisMom

I fully own that hand sanitizer is not doing anything other than making me feel cleaner (but I always wonder why they have dispensers in hospital rooms and doctor's offices these days).

It's a little more nuanced than that, because there are different kinds of hand sanitizer. Presumably the medical professionals have chosen one that works against the pathogens they're trying to avoid.


The most common kinds have some sort of alcohol in them (ethanol, isopropanol, etc.). In sufficient concentration (like 60%), it kills bacteria reliably and will destroy common respiratory viruses (because these alcohols dissolve the lipid coatings of those viruses).

Unfortunately, you can apparently label a product with 2% ethanol as hand sanitizer.¹ Chemically, that's a lot like diluting a glass of light beer with water, and then washing with it. One might imagine that this isn't especially effective.

Here's some further reading on the topic, including the recommendation to use ethanol or isopropanol hand sanitizers with a concentration of at least 60%.


Stuff like norovirus is a little more resistant, but might respond to some of the other active chemicals—like benzalkonium chloride or iodine—in other formulations of hand sanitizer. (Alternatively, you can destroy norovirus with the hypochlorite in chlorine bleach, diluted in water.)

¹ IFI, you need to dump your branded hand sanitizer vendor.