Powder touted by Gohmert not real

The claim: “Health care workers go through a misting tent going into the hospital and it kills the coronavirus completely dead not only right then, but any time in the next 14 days that the virus touches anything that’s been sprayed it is killed.” — U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler. Gohmert made the comment as he discussed a powder that he said is already in use in Germany. He added that he is trying to get a similar product from an Arizona-based company “fasttracked” in the United States.

PolitiFact ruling: Pants on Fire. No such product seems to exist and no similar product is in use in Germany. There are no products currently in use as disinfecting agents in the United States that come close to meeting the description Gohmert offered.

Discussion: Gohmert’s office did not provide any more information about the product or the company in Arizona he says is working on the powder disinfectant.

“What your congressman said is absolute nonsense,” said Dr.

Jörn Wegner, a spokesman for the German Hospital Association. “There are no such tents and there’s no powder or magical cure.”

Thomas Ruttkowski, spokesman for the German Society of Hospital Hygiene, said there is no product like the one Gohmert described.

“I’m sorry, but we did not hear about that magic powder,” he said in an email. “Thank you for your mail. … Finally, something to laugh about.”

Amy Cross, project coordinator at the National Pesticide Information Center, said she is not aware of a product on the list of EPA-regulated surface disinfectants that meets the description Gohmert offered.

There are some products that are powder-based and can be combined with water and used in a liquid form, Cross said. But like all of the disinfectants on the list, the product is a liquid and has a set contact time — the amount of time a surface needs to stay wet with a product for it to be effective.

Cross said this time varies by product, ranging from 15 seconds to 15 minutes.

“The idea that it would have residual activity after the surface is no longer wet to kill that virus is incredibly surprising to me, because I haven’t found any other products that have those similar claims,” she said of the powder Gohmert described.

World Health Organization guidelines emphasize the importance of “environmental cleaning and disinfection procedures” and state that washing surfaces with “water and detergent and applying commonly used hospitallevel disinfectants (such as sodium hypochlorite) are effective and sufficient procedures.”

Wegner of the German Hospital Association echoed these recommendations.

“The only protection against the virus are personal protection equipment — masks, disposable coats and gloves — and proper hygiene,” he said.