Some medical experts have started to warn that the overuse of alcohol-based hand sanitizers to protect against the coronavirus could inversely raise the risk of infection via skin disorders.
Washing one's hands too many times can also have an adverse effect by abrading the skin, which normally acts as a barrier to keep moisture in and harmful agents out.
Overdoing both to avoid the pneumonia-causing virus may remove benign bacteria on the skin that normally fend off such pathogens as the norovirus.