Sunlight Might Be Really Good At Destroying Coronavirus, Raising Some Interesting Questions

Sunshine might be an Achilles heel of SARS-CoV-2, Tom Hale at IFLscience.com reports. It’s been known for some time that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is quickly destroyed on a surface that’s doused in simulated sunlight, but a team of scientists now argues the virus may be even more susceptible to ultraviolet radiation than previously appreciated.  In July 2020 an important study found that simulated sunlight “rapidly inactivates SARS-CoV-2” on surfaces. By their estimates, 90 percent of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was inactivated every 6.8 minutes in simulated saliva when exposed to simulated sunlight representative of a clear summer’s day at sea level. The following month, another study produced a theoretical…