Antimicrobial Industry Must Maintain Its Leadership Role
The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on public health like never before. In the past few months, people around the world are coming to grips with the new reality in which we live, where the difference between sickness and health could be as simple as remembering to run a disinfecting wipe over a shopping cart handle or using the right spray to clean one’s kitchen counter.
Throughout this unprecedented time, it has been the mission of the Center for Biocide Chemistries (CBC) to share vital knowledge about antimicrobials and their ability to combat harmful microbes. As government agencies, healthcare providers, scientists, and emergency response workers have stepped up to fight this common enemy, they do so equipped with, and protected by, antimicrobials that are designed to kill and stop the spread of dangerous viruses, bacteria, and fungi.
As people across the country and around the world have stayed “separate together” to ensure the safety of themselves and their loved ones, there is a realization that we must all adjust to a new mindset where we are more thoughtful about sanitation, hygiene, public protocols, social rituals, and other previously overlooked dynamics. This will not, and should not, go away when COVID-19 is eliminated.
Well before the onset of COVID-19, and especially after it had begun spreading around the globe, the CBC created numerous materials to educate people on matters of health and safety and how Good Chemistry supports that. These lessons and guiding principles, which we’ve been touting for more than a year, are going to be central tenets in this new reality.
We have emphasized the importance of
- Understanding the difference between cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting our households, offices, and facilities;
- Being more aware of how a disinfectant product should and should not be used;
- Knowing that some of the most innocuous places in homes are also the most-germ-ridden;
- Hand-washing vigorously to help prevent the spread of germs;
- Being careful and considerate when navigating public places.
Most of all, we emphasize that antimicrobials, when used the right way, are effective and essential in killing harmful germs and viruses that could otherwise pose real dangers to people. This is valuable knowledge that must remain forefront in our minds and must stay with us long after COVID-19 retreats to the history books. We understand that the leadership role that the CBC and the antimicrobial industry has taken must continue, evolve, and grow stronger. And as times change, Good Chemistry will continue to be there for us, acting as our first line of defense against the spread of harmful, devastating diseases like this one.
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