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