0. I was idly thinking about the current H1N1 flue pandemic, and the following things occurred to me. Please note, I know very little about this subject matter. So, please consider descriptions in the following as, at best, tentative.

1. There is a basic difference between how alcohol kills viruses and how salt-water kills bacteria. [Alcohol is used in the hand-cleaners they use in hospitals. Girgling with salt-water is the first line of defense (and an unexpectedly highly effective one) which is well known for millenia.]

But the mechanisms involved are different.