I was down at the grocery store earlier and they were totally out of anything resembling disinfectant, so for anybody in the same situation stressing out about COVID-19 here’s a PSA.

I used to work in a microbiology lab that studied the kind of bacteria that can actually kill you, and had the whole rigmarole of “how to not accidentally cause a disease outbreak” training while I worked there. You know what the standard disinfectant is for wiping down a lab bench on which you’ve been working with actual tubes full of live pathogens?

1 part household bleach and 9 parts water in a plastic spray bottle.

If you’re the kind of person who cleans with bleach this is probably barely going to look like anything (because basically everyone who uses bleach to clean uses way more than they need to), but trust me, this is what scientists who make their living handling germs that can kill them consider an adequate amount of bleach to kill absolutely everything.

Just don’t use it immediately before or after other cleaners because bleach loves to react with things to make noxious gas.

P.S.: Plain old soap will also reliably kill coronavirus.