In a word, no.

Dr. Jeffrey VanWingen is a family medicine specialist from Grand Rapids, Michigan. He’s a doctor, he went to medical school, he’s been practicing medicine for over 20 years, and by the look of his online reviews (if you like to trust those sorts of things), he appears to be a “very nice” guy.

Very nice doctors who mean well are not the same as experts who have studied the transmission of this new and complex virus in detail. Non-experts should refrain from giving their own advice.

The vast majority of doctors haven’t studied virology in detail or, if they have, it’s been many years. And that’s why it’s important to get your information on life and death matters such as COVID-19 safety tips from the best source possible.

Doctors and public health experts are two different things – and they even get two different degrees.

Of course, that doesn’t mean a doctor can’t be right about repeating information regarding disease transmission and safety, but it does raise concerns when a video by a family doctor has been viewed over 25 million times in about a week on YouTube – especially when some of that information is confusing or contradicts expert advice.

And when someone giving advice that could mean the difference between safety and exposure to risk says “I’m a healthcare provider under a lot of stress, please be nice in your comments” in a video, viewers would do well to note that kindness and mercy are wonderful things, but they are not what experts ask for.

So, what does Dr. VanWingen say? Nothing new, really. In fact, you’d get better advice from the CDC information sheet he links to in his caption (which shouldn’t be a surprise since they’re the disease control experts).

It’s also worth noting that instead of taking down his viral video, Dr. VanWingen chose to keep it up and simply issue corrections and clarifications for his mistakes in the caption – probably not the wisest choice for people who want to watch a video instead of reading. At this point, we have to wonder if he’s more serious about going viral than he is about preventing the virus.

But here we go with his “advice”:

At the store

His instructions to wipe down your entire shopping cart (not just the handle – remember, you’re going to touch items that have touched other parts) with an antiseptic wipe is good. If you can get your hands on a wipe with at least 70% alcohol (60% is sufficient for hand sanitizer), that’s great, but most of them have been snapped up by greedy hoarders at this point. Still, you should make an effort to either wear gloves or clean your ENTIRE cart if you can. Otherwise, wear gloves and absolutely avoid touching your face.

Furthermore, you should only touch the items you intend to buy. Handling extra goods spreads germs, so make a list before you head to the store. Now is NOT the time to hem and haw over the calories or ingredients list. Grab it and go.

For those in the high-risk categories, it’s important to try to avoid leaving your home at all. That means if you’ve been exposed to COVID-19, have symptoms, or are over 65, according to the CDC, try to avoid shopping. Since people who have underlying health issues (and that’s everything from heart conditions to obesity) tend to develop more serious symptoms, they’re included in the high-risk category.

For whatever reason, Dr. VanWingen changes the age to 60 in his advice. There’s probably not too much difference since the virus doesn’t know your birthday, but adhering to the best advice rather than changing it without explanation is always the best bet.

While the good doctor claims he posted his video before various experts had weighed in, that’s simply not true. He didn’t do his research. That’s especially apparent in his advice on what to do with groceries once you get them home.

This is why it’s best for non-experts to refrain from ad-libbing advice and posting it online.

At home

VanWingen recommends leaving groceries outside in a garage or porch for three days! This one needed quite a bit of correction since multiple experts reached out to him and implored him to stop misinforming people.

For example, you cannot leave perishable foods like meat out for that length of time without creating a health hazard. Furthermore, most refrigerated and all frozen items need to remain cold, so you can’t simply stick them in your garage or leave them in your car trunk.

His caption correction? “Clarification: Perishable foods like meat should be brought in the home and refrigerated.”

Dr. VanWingen also goes into great detail on how to sterilize food packaging when you do bring in your goods. But he gets a few things wrong, including one big doozy.

While it’s not a bad idea to wipe everything down with a disinfectant before putting it away, it might be overkill and an unnecessary waste of your precious disinfectant. If you’ve left items like cereal outside for even 1 day, there’s no need to disinfect it or throw away the box (though it doesn’t necessarily hurt).

NIH data has shown that COVID-19 can live up to 24 hours on cardboard (and up to 3 days on plastic and stainless steel).

His caption correction reads: “Correction: NIH Data – COVID-19 lives on cardboard for 1 day.”

When VanWingen instructs people to thoroughly clean their foods, he implies that the virus can live on them for a significant period of time and there’s no evidence of that.

He corrects his video in the caption: “Clarification: Only disinfect the outside packaging.”

But his biggest no-no? His advice to wash fruits and vegetables with soap and water. That can cause you to ingest household soaps and cleaners and you don’t want that.

He posted a follow-up video and caption correction on that matter, but if you’re simply watching the video like most people, you won’t get that information.

His caption simply reads “Correction: Rinse fruits and vegetables with water – no soap.”

The best advice he gives – WASH YOUR HANDS with soap and water. This is probably one of the most effective things you can do to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

We don’t fault friendly well-meaning doctors for wanting to help educate people, but the best thing we can all do right now (and at any time, really) is to understand the limits of our expertise and not overstep those boundaries. When we’re not experts, we should point people to expert resources rather than try to win online popularity. This is, after all, a matter of life and death.

We don’t recommend watching the video, but instead reading the CDC’s expert guide with the latest scientifically valid information on preventing exposure to SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, also known as novel coronavirus.

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Source: Jeffrey VanWingen via YouTube, CDC, LiveScience, FDA, NIH