why aren't the antibc hand gel manufacturers producing any?

[anyname147]

why the hell has the world's supply of hand sanitiser dried up? It's just three ingredients for gods sake and probably with an endless shelf life. Why cant the manufacturers get any out to the shops? Does it take years to make or something? A delay of a few days or even weeks is understandable but it it's months now. If a journalist is reading this can you please investigate how much longer the stores will have to wait to receive more supplies?

I have ordered some from Spanish company here. They have stock. www.carethy.co.uk/hygiene-and-health/carethy-1583229316/hydroalcoholic-hand-sanitizing-gel Has been dispatched. Yet to be delivered. I paid a third of the price now quoted unfortunately but they have stock if anyone wants some and at least it’s not from China so delivery will be faster.

If anyone else has info on the local companies and how people can get hold of the gel, I know that would be greatly appreciated by many. I’m hopefully sorted. But I know I’m in the minority.

I forgot to say. Anti bac is useless against cv. You need alcohol hand gel.

Oh, and anyone who steals gel from hospital should be up before the Magistrates pronto!

I was horrified and slightly amused earlier as I was at the counter of local shop and they had a box of tiny glass bottles labelled 'hand sanitizer' (hand written).

I picked one up to take a look and it said Taylor's of Harrogate on the front, when I turned it over it has perfume listed as an ingredient. I asked the woman what % alcohol and she shrugged.

I'm not sure whether to go back and tell them they're selling eau de cologne, not hand sanitizer.

• I don’t think refilling would work because the bottles might be contaminated so they shouldn’t be handled by lots of people unless they are properly disinfected first. The virus may survive up to 3 days on plastic surfaces.*

So... fill refill your container, then use a bit of what you've just bought on your hands and then wash them, and the outside of the container, when you get home.

Someone mentioned paracetamol - that's one of the cheap drugs which aren't made anywhere in Europe now , afaik it's mostly from China and India. Supplies from China will probably have been disrupted, and India has put limits on exports of all sorts of pharmaceuticals.

A local manufacturer has just gone from two to three shifts a day, they can't bottle it fast enough to keep up with demand. They can't just pull a couple of randoms off the street, throw them onto the production line. You can't just buy and install new blending and packing plant at short notice. It takes time to ramp up production.

It is still a matter of weeks since this kicked off in the UK, not months - even if it feels like it's been going on for years. The shortages are largely caused by false demand, bottles that are sitting unused on people's shelves rather than shop or warehouse shelves.

The general public do not need hand sanitiser, soap and water is effective. Expect supplies to be directed to those that really need it. The public will complain, but they just need to learn to think smarter and be less selfish.

From what I have read I have not bothered with hand sanitiser at all. Have been using liquid and bar soap frequently and a nail brush and just washed my hands more often and my children’s hands.

dh just took dd and her firends to pizza hut.
They all had to wash their hands and then use the hand sanitizer before being allowed in.

dd is the only one in her class that doesn't have hand sanitizer in her bag.

I am immunosuppressed and have been using hand sanitiser appropriately for the last 4 years.
I can't get any, neither can I get ingredients to make it.
I am really anxious about this whole situation.

I have given up trying to get hold of any hand sanitiser gel now, even online as small bottles are being sold for £10 instead of the usual £2-3 and they will hardly last very long. I'd have to buy 4 so we each have one so a cost of £40 and the bottles are so small they'd probably only last a few days.

There was an American Dr online posting how to make your own hand sanitiser. Aloe Vera gel - the prices have also been hiked, and rubbing alcohol - which also seems out of stock everywhere!

When the largest industrial country in the world has been shut down for 6 weeks there are going to be shortages of all sorts of thing.

Interupted production plus massive increase in demand, doesn't take genius..

TBH if shutdown in China has been as complete as we've been told, I'm amazed there aren't more shortages. Maybe we're still using old stock and that's still to come.

TBH if shutdown in China has been as complete as we've been told, I'm amazed there aren't more shortages. Maybe we're still using old stock and that's still to come.
Because there's a lot of stock in-transit in containers on ships at any point in time. They take a while to reach their destination.

Another problem is that the manufacturers that make the hand gel are (generally) also making soaps, detergents, and cleaning chemicals. There's increased demand for everything they make - not just hand gel.

Even if the manufacturers double their production, they still have to get that product to distribution centres where it is then delivered to lorries that will take it to supermarkets, wholesalers, warehouses etc.
I’m sure that if the major supermarkets put out double their usual order, it will still be sold out relatively quickly.

It’s a matter of logistics. Not just of manufacturing.

Happy to DM with details of the hand gel if anyone would like it.

Soap and water works better.

Here you go : WHO recipe for homemade hand sanitiser https://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/GuidetooLocalProduction.pdf

In the unlikely event anyone on here is near Harrington in Derbyshire, there is a brill farm shop and tea rooms there- lovely walk and fresh air while you still can. They have a fair bit of hand sanitiser .

Hartington not Harrington

Calm down op. Maybe make your own it can't be that difficult. And th emost effective thing is still soap and water. Tonnes of that about still. Also, there is bound to be something to do with supply and demand economics, growth which is too fast is detrimental to profit, just one example of where capitalism is its own undoing. In the same way many supermarkets won't give leftovers to the homeless.

My husband works for a printing firm and has been doing overtime printing mostly the labels for bottles of hand gel so they are presumably making plenty, it will just take time to get through.

Why soap works better:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/12/science-soap-kills-coronavirus-alcohol-based-disinfectants

Absolutely sick to death of multiple posters bleating on about soap and water being better, therefore don't bother with hand sanitizer.

Soap and water is bloody fantastic if you're at home. Or if your cosy office has multiple loos close to your desk.

Soap and water is not useful when you're on public transport, or working on a till. It's not useful when you're going between patients/customers and are in a close proximity to them. There are many, many, situations in which hand sanitizer day-to-day is essential right now.

I handle money and deal with customers up close on a daily basis. I'm also pregnant. I'd sure as hell love hand sanitizer to keep on me as people are bloody vile and it's impossible to wash your hands after every transaction. Only today I had multiple men who clearly hadn't washed their hands in hours holding out piles of change asking me to pick what I needed out of it.

The reality is, some jobs genuinely need sanitizer. There's a big difference between a desk job where you can clean the computer, keypad etc yourself and then wash your hands throughout the day, and working in close proximity to strangers for hours who aren't washing their hands, are giving you dirty money, and are sneezing/coughing all over the show.

Those stockpiling it are bonkers, and literally endangering us all - surely it's better that everyone can get some - so other people's dirty mitts get clean too.

I've seen a few posts today apparently of market stalls etc selling it at hugely inflated places with the packaging looking suspiciously like it was made for healthcare settings. I hope the authorities are following those up.

why the hell has the world's supply of hand sanitiser dried up?

Because demand has outstripped supply. Simple as.

We sell antibac gels and hand rubs etc and just can’t get enough of them.

This on one of our supplier websites.

A lot of it is produced in the UK, but they have to get hold of bottles and other packaging, print labels, create new safety data sheets and specifications sheets if the chemical components differ from previous batches, organise the delivery logistics. If it is a new product to the seller they have to create it on their systems, with bar codes etc in order to sell it.

Part of the trouble is that much is made and supplied on a "just in time basis"

Because holding large amounts of stock is expensive. Wholesalers and sellers don’t want to tie up their capital in stock if they don’t have to.

I saw that article as well ravenmum. I think people have forgotten how good an old fashioned bar of soap is.

Is it true it does nothing anyway?
Reasoning that the virus isn't bacterial.