Fight Coronavirus with Soap
Soap is magic
Something as ancient and simple as soap is our best weapon in this pandemic. Sounds silly, right? Remember how your mother always told you to wash your hands? Well, now she is being backed up by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization. Mama always knows best.
Washing your hands in one of the best weapons against the COVID-19 pandemic. As health and government officials warn the public to practice social distancing, stay at home as much as possible, and avoid touching your face, they are also driving home the point that washing your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water is one of the best things you can do.
But seriously, soap and water? In a time when we have technologies like supercomputers and artificial intelligence why are we relying so heavily on something that is thought to have been created in 2800BC in ancient Babylon? It’s simple. When it comes to fighting viruses, soap is magic.
This isn’t a new discovery. We’ve known for a long time that soap is the best thing you can use to stay healthy. It’s why medical professionals highly recommend washing your hands with soap and water during the cold and flu season. Soap is a totally magical molecule. I don’t know if we could make something with all our technology today that works as well as soap.
So we know that soap is the answer but the question is WHY? Why is something so common, inexpensive, and old-school so powerful? It’s the dual nature of soap that makes it so effective. Soap is made by mixing fats and oils with a base. It makes an interesting molecule with two different parts. On one end of the molecule is hydrophobic, meaning it’s repelled by or doesn’t mix with water and is attracted to fats. The other end of the molecule is hydrophilic, meaning it’s attracted to and mixes well with water while being repelled by fats and proteins.
This is why when you wash a greasy pan with soap, the grease is broken up and removed. The part of the soap that is attracted to fat grabs hold of the grease and the part of the soap that is attracted to water drags the grease away into the water. It’s much the same with the coronavirus.
The virus molecule has a protective shell, called a capsid that is made up of proteins and lipids, which are fats. That shell not only protects the virus but the proteins in the capsid enable the virus to penetrate the membrane of a living cell in the body so it can replicate and spread. When soap encounters the virus, the part of the soap molecule that is attracted to fat pushes the capsid and breaks it apart. When the soap breaks open the capsid, the virus’ genetic material is left unprotected. The virus cannot invade a living cell and replicate once its capsid is smashed open.
There are a lot of grooves and folds on your hands so the virus has a lot of places to settle into. However, it doesn’t infect you simply by being on your hands; it needs to use a living cell to replicate and the outer layer of skin on your hands is dead. The infection occurs when you touch your eyes or mouth and the virus enters the mucous membranes in your throat, traveling down your respiratory tract, and begins to spread.