0:00 You know that the best way to prevent the spread of coronavirus is to wash your hands.
0:04 Wash your hands, doo doo, doo doo, doo doo.
0:07 Wash your hands!
0:09 But … why?
0:10 It’s because soap — regular soap, fancy honeysuckle soap, artisan peppermint soap,
0:15 just any soap — absolutely annihilates viruses like the coronavirus.
0:20 Here’s how.
0:22 This is what a virus, like coronavirus, looks like.
0:25 It’s a bit of material surrounded by a coating of proteins — and fat.
0:30 Viruses easily stick to places like your hands, but when you rinse your hands with just water,
0:35 it rushes right over the virus.
0:37 That’s because that layer of fat makes the virus behave kind of like a drop of oil.
0:43 You can see it happening in this demonstration.
0:45 Oils are just liquid fats.
0:47 What happens when you pour oil into water?
0:51 It floats — it doesn’t mix.
0:55 But add soap…
1:00 And suddenly that fatty oil dissolves into the water.
1:05 That’s because inside, soap has two-sided molecules.
1:09 One end of the molecule is attracted to water, the other end to fat.
1:13 So when the soap molecules come in contact with water and fat, these dual attractions
1:18 literally pull the fat apart, surrounding the oil particles and dispersing them through the water.
1:24 Let’s go back to our coronavirus molecule.
1:26 With that layer of fat holding everything together.
1:28 When it interacts with soap … bam!
1:30 The fat gets pulled out by the soap.
1:33 Soap literally pulls apart and demolishes these viruses.
1:38 And then the water rinses the harmless, leftover shards of virus down the drain.
1:42 But, and you know where I'm going with this, it takes time for this effect to happen.
1:47 20 seconds, to be specific.
1:51 To show why, we ordered this lotion that mimics viruses and their fatty layers.
1:55 It glows under a UV light.
2:00 If you just rinse your hands under regular water … nothing comes off.
2:05 If you wash for just 5 seconds or 10 seconds, your hands are still covered.
2:11 The virus is still here, able to get you and others sick.
2:15 But 20 full seconds:
2:18 Now the soap is actually destroying the virus.
2:22 Hand sanitizer works too, because it’s mostly alcohol, and alcohol works in a somewhat similar
2:27 way to soap, breaking down that fatty layer.
2:31 You need a high concentration of alcohol to make that work.
2:34 The CDC recommends hand sanitizers with at least 60% alcohol.
2:39 But even with 60% alcohol, the CDC recommends using soap if you can.
2:44 If your hands are sweaty or dirty when you use the sanitizer, that can dilute it and
2:49 diminish its effectiveness.
2:51 As for soap, just any old soap works.
2:54 You don’t need soap marketed as antibacterial, even.
2:57 The FDA says skip it — there’s no proof it is any more effective.
3:01 Just be sure to wash your hands.
3:03 For 20 seconds.
3:05 That’s “Happy Birthday” twice.
3:10 Or the chorus to Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts.”
3:14 Or Prince.
3:16 Or Eminem.
3:18 Or even Dolly.
3:21 Just as long as it’s 20 seconds.
3:25 And you’re using the ultimate virus annihilator: soap.
