Could Gargling Help Prevent COVID-19 Infections?

An article that appeared just before the new year, again posed the question which many people have considered on their own. The logic of cleansing the throat seems more strategic that cleaning everything else and such thinkers will confess to having taken up the habit. Confess, because they feel they must be doing something dastardly and daring, since, in one long year of opportunity, health officials have not mentioned it. Likely something they will get in trouble for, especially if they believe it makes a mask irrelevant.

Could Gargling Help Prevent COVID-19 Infections? Dec 29, 2020 Nicole Levine

Looking for another simple method to reduce your risk of COVID-19 infection? Prominent pulmonologists suggest gargling might be worth a try.

In a recent commentary in the American Journal of Medicine, a group of prominent pulmonologists argue that gargling with antiseptic mouthwash should be studied as a potential preventive COVID-19 measure.

“We’re trying to find ways to prevent COVID-19 infection,” says Dr. Victor Tapson, a pulmonary critical care physician at Cedars-Sinai and one of the co-authors of the commentary. “Masks and physical distancing are really critical to stopping the spread of this disease. But are there other proven-safe measures we can add to those?”

In recent months, Tapson worked on NIH-funded COVID-19 treatment trials and is currently studying the role a clot-busting drug might play in pulmonary embolism caused by the illness.

He and colleagues quoted in the commentary point out that there is early data to suggest gargling might be a useful preventive measure, but there is not yet enough evidence to make a solid recommendation.

“There’s no double-blind, randomized trial proving you can make an impact on COVID-19 by gargling, but it seems like a logical, constructive thing to study,” he says.