What kryptonite was to Superman soap is to coronavirus. Though high-quality alcohol-based disinfectants do work, soap is the most affordable and effective at killing the virus on your skin.
Though we are still getting to know COVID-19 and how it behaves, we know it can stay active potentially for days. Once you have the virus, there is no cure and no drug can kill it. Despite pharmaceuticals being useless, a bar of soap knocks it dead.
Why is soap so effective with COVID-19 – the answer’s complicated yet simple. COVID-19 is ultimately a virus. It acts like a virus. It is a virus. COVID-19 is a nanoparticle, the weakest part of which is a fatty bilayer. Soap dissolves this fatty membrane. When it does, the nanoparticle instantly falls apart and inactivates itself as a virus. This is how soap kills the coronavirus.
Why we advise washing your hands with soap is because the most likely way you’re going to contract coronavirus is in person-to-person contact. When we cough or sneeze, we send tiny droplets into the air – sometimes up to 10 metres away. The coronavirus carriers are believed to exist within the droplets sent within two metres. These droplets end up on surfaces. We touch surfaces, get the virus on our hands, and that’s when we need soap.
If you don’t use soap to wash your hands, the virus sticks to your skin and stays there. If you then touch your face – such as the eyes, nostrils, or mouth – you get infected. Unfortunately, most people touch their face once every 2-5 minutes.
Why water doesn’t work to wash coronavirus is because the virus and skin interaction form a relationship like glue. Soap and water are different. Soap has fat-like substances called ‘amphiphiles’. These loosen the glue between the virus and skin, while also weakening the proteins, lipids, and RNA in the virus.
Alcohol-based disinfectants work similarly. Why soap is thought to be better is because it takes less. When you rub it in with water, you cover your whole hand and you’re done. This is contrary to disinfectants which have to soak the virus for a moment to kill it. Soap is more affordable, it covers more, and it works. End of story.
Are you looking for cleaners, disinfectants, and soap for coronavirus – contact Living.ca. Our warehouse is stocked. We ship to your front door contact-free. Let us help. Have the soap to successfully protect yourself against the spread of COVID-19.
Featured Photo by Edward Jenner on Pexels
