The plan to disinfect the White House before Biden moves in is a 'huge waste of time and effort,' experts say

(Image credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

published 16 December 2020

"Nuking" the White House "with chemicals is not needed" to protect the incoming Biden administration from COVID-19, J. David Krause, an environmental and occupational health consultant, told Stat News, yet that appears to be the plan to disinfect the building before the transition.

Multiple outlets have reported that a Virginia-based contractor has been tapped to spray a disinfectant throughout the East and West Wings before President-elect Joe Biden moves in next month, but Krause — the past chair of the American Industrial Hygiene Association — and many other experts have said that strategy is not only ineffective, but also could be dangerous, both for people and for works of art.

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Instead, a deep clean followed by another round of frequently-touched surfaces like elevator buttons and light switches should do the trick, Jason Marshall, the laboratory director of the Toxics Use Reduction Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, told Stat. And both Marshall and Krause agree leaving the White House empty for a week between administrations could be the easiest solution, since studies have found the coronavirus only lasts for a few days on surfaces. Read more at Stat News.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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