Day 143: Counterfeit Hand Sanitizer

The FDA has issued a warning about nine hand sanitizers made in Mexico by Eskbiochem SA de CV. They range from contaminated with methanol to wholly composed of methanol; some were not tested but appear to have been presumed guilty by association. (It seems even hand sanitizer can get cancelled.) Methanol does have legitimate topical uses, and PlagueBlog suspects that if a toxic topical dose were involved the FDA would have been more specific about the danger.

On the animal front, a preprint examining the susceptibility of pets, livestock, and wildlife has found, not surprisingly, that cats are particularly susceptible. Pangolins and hamsters are also known to become infected, and the authors cited a case of human-to-pig transmission. Despite that case and a perhaps unsurprising theoretical susceptibility, pigs proved difficult to infect in the lab. Poultry was particularly resistant, and the second most resistant was the dog. (Cabbits and mink were not mentioned in the paper.)

Mink continue to fall ill. The latest outbreak is on a mink farm in Denmark, where the Danish jumped immediately to the final solution of neovisicide. The count of concentration camps infected mink farms in the Netherlands has reached fifteen; it seems the Dutch government intends to slaughter them all (if it has not done so already). An animal rights group appealed the decision, but the judge ruled against the innocent, mostly-recovered mink.

Massachusetts cases are up 0.14% today. That's about 150 new cases, and not nearly enough to keep Florida (with 100,000 cases total) from passing us in just a few days. Georgia edged Maryland out of the top ten states yesterday.