How soap absolutely annihilates the coronavirus
Category: Health, Science & Technology
Via: dignitatem-societatis • 4 years ago • 72 commentsBy: Brian Resnick for VOX
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
... Sanitizer might feel like a modern-day, scientific, and more clinical upgrade to soap. But I’m here to tell you that soap — all sorts of it: liquid, solid, honeysuckle-scented, the versions inexplicably only marketed to men or women — is a badass, and even more routinely effective than hand sanitizer. We should be excited to use it, as much as possible.
That’s because when you wash your hands with soap and water, you’re not just wiping viruses off your hands and sending them down the drain. You’re actually annihilating the viruses, rendering them harmless. Soap “is almost like a demolition team breaking down a building and taking all the bricks away,” says Palli Thordarson , a chemistry professor at the University of New South Wales
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... One side of the soap molecule (the one that’s attracted to fat and repelled by water) buries its way into the virus’s fat and protein shell. Fortunately, the chemical bonds holding the virus together aren’t very strong, so this intrusion is enough to break the virus’s coat. “You pull the virus apart, you make it soluble in water, and it disintegrates,” he says.
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... The trick is this all takes a little time to happen, and that’s why you need to take at least 20 seconds to wash your hands.
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Knowledge is power. You need to give the soap enough time to destroy the virus's protective outer coating of fat.
That video is a must watch (it's only a few minutes long).
A quick wash just won't cut the mustard, folks. Give it at least 20 seconds.
One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi...
I like the Alphabet Song myself.
It's also important to properly dry one's hands. The mechanical action from the friction of the towel also destroys viruses
The process of becoming a paramedic involved "scrubbing in" in surgical situations.
If your hands aren't red and a bit sore, you haven't scrubbed hard enough.
God help the student who inadvertently touched his/her face after being "gloved".
Not scratching your nose is a lot harder to not do when you realize you can't.
Guess that's why surgeons make the big bucks.
I'm constantly scratching my nose. I have 2 cats and I always feel like I have fur up my nose.
It sure is. I keep trying to not touch my face in any way at all when I go to the store. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be.
When I did my nursing rotation in surgery, there was always someone to scratch a surgeon's nose or wipe sweaty foreheads using a 10 inch hemostat holding a sterile 2x2.
Great article/link
Good reminder!
Standard practice for those of us who have worked in the healthcare field working around lots of sick people.
Soap .... the original hand sanitizer.
Hmmmmm - wonder if the folks in the medical field are looking at the ingredients of soap which can be applied to a vaccine . . . . . . .????
Yeah - I'm sure they are, right? I mean you could get a two for one.
One side of the soap molecule (the one that’s attracted to fat and repelled by water) buries its way into the virus’s fat and protein shell.
Folks who are overweight??? "attracted to fat and repelled by water"???? Maybe some/one of the ingredients from the soap could be also used as a weight reduction assist???
Nahhh - too friggin' easy.
Probably because the ingredients in soap are for topical use only
But, with the right chemical enhancements, that particular ingredient could be "modified", allowing it to be used within the body - maybe??
Ehhh....I doubt it but I'm not a chemist
Lol .... yeah i doubt it would work very well at the cellular level inside the body. The empirical evidence i have for that is when i got my mouth washed out with it, it didn't appear to stop any colds or anything .....
Breaking down the fat layer of the virus is great, but breaking down the fat layer of your cells might not be so great.
Yes-- that's one problem with that approach!
(Another, perhaps less important problem is....that it wouldn't work).
Nope. Soap would have a similar reaction on human cells.
Isn't that why you get the runs when you eat soap?
LAVA Soap - kills EVERY THING.
Yep, love that stuff .... except not in the mouth washing arena .....
including the epidermis, lol
that pumice is good after working on the car but I find it too much for everyday use.
We used to have it in the gallon pumpers at the dealership.
I know exactly what you mean.
What moisturing lotion would you recommend as the best ones for rough hands?
O'Keeke's Working Hands.
When I used to do brakes, I got into the habit of using latex gloves.
When overhauling automatic transmissions I used nitrile gloves
because of the sharp edges and the caustic fluids used to clean the aluminum parts.
Oh, I forgot about that one. IIRC it used to be the "go to" lotion for hands. I used it many years ago.
Thanks to all for the info.
May come in handy, a;though for the last few years it rare that I do any of that sort of manual labour.
Holy shiite .... nobody light a match!
I have known about this and as a result haven't used anything but soap for years. However recently I was thinking of starting to use those anti-bacterial handwipes (But recently when I started looking for them... of course the stores were sold out).
Lol .... check out one of your dimwitted neighbors (we all have one or two of those) and he's probably got a garage full of TP and hand sanitizer. Maybe he'll let you use some.
I prefer the lilac scented savior of the universe.
Perfect seed for the times!
One thing I noticed is that everybody is hoarding TP but you walk down the soap aisle and it's almost fully stocked. WTF are you people doing after you use the toilet? WASH YOUR F%CKING HANDS PEOPLE!!!!!!
And passed on what I've seen in toilets in some stores-- some people also need a reminder to...FLUSH THE TOILET AFTER USING!
My hubby always took note of who washed their hands after going to the bathroom and if they didn't he never shook their hand again.
Kind of gross. I wonder how often that happens at restaurants.
Seinfeld, of course, covers all of life's situations:
Poppy was sloppy!
That is actually almost the title of another episode on Poppy.
Haven't shaken anybody's hand in years for a variety of reasons. These days folk don't mind and just chalk it up to caution. Haven't tried the elbow bump yet but then I haven't met anybody in awhile. Besides, my elbows are my most effective weapons. Hate to subvert all those years of training and make them friendly.
I expect a head nod or a bow to take the place of a touching type of greeting in the days, weeks, months and years to come.
In my mid 60s, am a retired paramedic and have seen a virus or two come and go. This one seems different than any I've experienced. More "viral", fast spreading, pandemic.
I worked with a woman who washed her hands before using the toilet and then didn't bother to wash them afterwards. I yelled at her one day for it and she came close to calling me a bitch. Too bad she didn't, I might have been able to see her retired earlier than what she did.
Just...just...just ewwwwww.
I think that's because it isn't fast acting in the extreme sense like say an Ebola strain. You catch that and you get really sick. really fast with a very high mortality rate. Not as much of an opportunity to be walking around spreading it to everyone else.
People are walking around extensively with this virus without even knowing they have it. Much tougher to contain something like that without the extreme distancing measures being implemented now.
I love that one. They never explained why she wouldn't eat the first piece of apple pie in the beginning of the episode, though. What the heck was wrong with it? That's always bugged me.
Even the greatest shows have their flaws due to writers being lazy about tying up loose ends. I think of GoT season 8 as the grandest example of this.
From everything I've seen, this is one of the fastest spreading viruses. (And initially they said it had one of the lower mortality rates. However it seems that we won't have a more accurate picture of the actual mortality rate 'tll we have more testing.
And until governments stop lying to us-- both China as well as our Dear Leader have both lied e, playing down the seriousness of the spread.
I take note of people like that and call them out, loudly in public. I never give it second thought that they might be embarrassed and don't really care.
Many of us perform "High"gene. But there are also many that perform "No"gene.
I have 2 children that work in food service. It's disgusting, some of the stories they come home with.
Is it the one about the pee couch?
Great gift offering. Thank you I learned from it! Moreover, it sits in a bevy of notable videos on Youtube! A real wealth of understanding there.
I have been saying that for weeks when people began panicking over the shortage of hand sanitizer. I told them to use soap & wash their hands.
And there are other things we can do as well to greatly strenthen our Immune system...which would result in a much milder infection if you get it. Meaning less severe case as well as shorter duration of it.
But people aren't interested in that because the media they use doesn't tell them about it.
(I am convinced that in our modern society, even with compulsive hand-washing and social distancing, most everyone will be exposed to it-- but people don't realize that we have some control over how severe it is. Some folks won't even know they have it, will think they have a cold. A very few will die). But the media presents it as its a question of either you get it-- or you don't. No middle ground, no way you have any control over the severity.No way to strengthen your immune system.Which is false....
Add two jiggers of any alcohol to the bottle and you are good to go.
Highest alcohol by volume (you can get your hands on), please. And, go with that!
I did not mentally process this the first time around and it was an ongoing question for me. I have processed it properly now. Whoopee!
I was wondering if anybody else that resides in the Southern part of this great country has any concerns about mosquito seasons affect here in spring i.e. early summer.
Hopefully someone is studying that right now
Nah more like Pauline proactive...... this reactive crap is nonsense.
Marijuana is a much better idea than soap - neither one will cure the virus, but marijuana will at least make you feel better.