The Tiny Compound That Makes Soap A Coronavirus Killer

Hand sanitizer has become a scarce commodity in a post coronavirus world it is sold out in stores across the country and around the world pushing people to turn to extreme measures one man sold a single bottle of Purell on ebay for $138 meanwhile in New Jersey a 7-eleven owner

Allegedly began making her own diluting industrial cleaning chemicals and water and then packing it into official-looking bottles to sell in her store authorities only found out when the concoction began burning the skin of

The people who used it but what you might be surprised to learn is that standard old-school run-of-the-mill soap is actually one of the most effective weapons we have against kovat 19 how is it possible that something people have

Literally been using for thousands of years could be so helpful in dealing with a 21st century pandemic well it really boils down to the molecular makeup of soap soap molecules sort of have two halves one half loves water the

Other loves lipids which are fats like oil and grease the scientific name for molecules like these is amphiphilic meaning it's both hydrophilic water loving and lipophilic fat loving that's why soap is so great for doing dishes

You take a plate full of oils and bacon grease from the remnants of a tasty breakfast put soap on it and scrub it a bit that soap is bonding to the greasy fat stuck on your plate but it's also bonding to water so once you knock it

Loose with some scrubbing that fat washes right off during the rinse and you get a clean plate this same concept is at work when you wash your hands Kovan 19 looks like this as does every other member of the coronavirus or

Common cold family it's basically a spiky microscopic ball that holds a bunch of the viruses genetic material inside the outer layer of that ball is made of lipids which as we already know are fats the corona virus gets its name

From those spikes which some scientists believed resembled the corona of the Sun the spikes are proteins the Waco vid 19 infects you is its proteins bond with special receptor proteins on the outside of your cells that act as gatekeepers

It's kind of like the virus as a clever old-timey burglar who has forged a key for the door to your cells once the proteins bond the virus's fatty membrane fuses with your cells stronger slightly different fatty membrane and

Moves inside the cell then it dumps its own genetic material into the cell hijacking the cell's resources and creating a bunch of new copies of the virus soap can stop this process before it ever starts remember how soap loves

Fat and water well when you wash your hands soap will start trying to bond with the fatty lipid membrane of the virus but it also wants to bond with water the resulting push and pull can actually

Break the virus's membrane apart so then the hydrophobic side of the soap goes after that fatty membrane of the virus it pulls it literally like threading it apart in that dramatic way the only catch is you have to keep washing long

Enough for the push and pull to weaken the bonds between the lipids holding the virus's membrane together this is why you hear experts recommending that you wash for at least 20 seconds touching every part of your hand and creating

Friction hands completely separate and that's separation if you were to watch it through the microscope you realize it takes that time the thing is though that even if you don't fully break the bonds holding the virus together soap has the

Added benefit of also just grabbing onto the virus then when you rinse your hands off even if you don't vanquish the virus you can wash it down the drain with the rest of the phony soap suds the fatty membrane of the virus is literally

Getting sucked away from your skin and being deposited in that for me or the soapy layer so then by the time you rinse with water it literally just goes away hand sanitizer works differently the

Alcohol in the sanitizer can break down the membrane too but hand sanitizer dries up really quickly so you traditionally have much less time for it to work on that membrane than you have with soap which easily lathers for

20 seconds or longer hand sanitizer also doesn't carry the virus with it down the drain it just sits on your hand so you're not getting the extra benefit of rinsing away virus particles for this reason many experts

Consider soap more effective in combating the virus and our widespread belief that hand sanitizer is just as good or better worried some of them it is likely that hand sanitizers may actually unintentionally faster the

Spread of this virus through asymptomatic meaning imagine if you throw in these limiting factors such as not applying the hand sanitizers in sufficient quantity not rubbing your hands long enough or maybe trying to

Hand before it actually works and maybe not using sanitizers with up to 60% of alcoholic content now what you're doing is you're still carrying it hand sanitizer is also still a major tool in our coronavirus toolkit you don't always

Have the ability to wash your hands like for example if you are stepping off a subway car where you just held a pole hand sanitizer can be an effective first pass in a situation like that to get the most out of that first pass though it's

A good idea to make sure you are using enough to cover your whole hand and keep rubbing for 20 seconds just like you would when washing your hands but even after using hand sanitizer it's always a good idea to follow up with a thorough

Hand wash when you get the chance so the major takeaway here is that if you can't find hand sanitizer don't sweat it too much just focus on washing your hands well with soap and pick up hand sanitizer next time it's in

Stock and of course first and foremost make sure you follow the latest guidelines from the CDC on hand sanitizer hand-washing and Prevention of kovin 19 hey everyone thanks for watching if you

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