A LEAKED REPORT FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY SAYS “SUNLIGHT DESTROYS THE VIRUS QUICKLY.”
It turns out there may be something to the old adage that “sunlight is the best disinfectant.” A recently leaked and unclassified government study shows promising data on the direct effect of sunlight on the deadly COVID-19 contagion. The study was conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology Department and is titled “S&T’s Research, Development, Testing and Evaluation (RDTE) Efforts on COVID-19.” The Department of Homeland Security has declined to comment on the leaked report that indicates that sunlight destroys the coronavirus in about three minutes.
The study found that the risk of “transmission from surfaces outdoors is lower during daylight” and under higher temperature and humidity conditions. “Sunlight destroys the virus quickly,” the briefing says.
The study tested how long the virus survives “in a droplet of saliva (e.g. from a cough/sneeze) and a dried droplet of saliva deposited on stainless steel in varying temperatures, humidity, and sunlight.”
What the research shows is quite encouraging, seeing as we are soon to enter warm summer months. Sunlight effectively killed the virus completely after three minutes, the study found. To be specific, full intensity sunlight killed the virus in roughly two minutes, while under “quarter intensity” of sunlight, the virus lived for four minutes. By comparison, when left in the dark under the same conditions, the COVID-19 contagion lived for 60 minutes.
Here’s a portion from the leaked report below:
During the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, there was a thought that, like influenza, the coronavirus would begin to abate as we reached warmer months. But many experts said that was not true. “You can catch COVID-19, no matter how sunny or hot the weather is,” the World Health Organization (WHO) notes. “Countries with hot weather have reported cases of COVID-19.” Indeed, Australia has reported nearly 7,000 cases of coronavirus, despite their summer weather.
DHS declined to comment on the leaked report, but did offer the following statement to Yahoo! News.
The department is dedicated to the fight against COVID-19, and the health and safety of the American people is its top priority. As policy, the department does not comment on allegedly leaked documents. It would be irresponsible to speculate, draw conclusions, or to inadvertently try to influence the public based upon a document that has not yet been peer-reviewed or subjected to the rigorous scientific validation approach.
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