Why does soap work so well on the coronavirus and other viruses?(twitter.com)

51 pointsby dirtyaura6 anni fa11 comments

Why does soap work so well on the coronavirus and other viruses?

https://twitter.com/PalliThordarson/status/1236549305189597189

12 comments

Has anyone seen the film of oil that may appear on the surface of the water when washing dishes? You add a little bit of washing liquid, and kind of like a popped balloon, the surface retreats to the edges of the sink pretty fast?

On the BBC yesterday they had a virologist who said the envelope would be destroyed by soap, sanitiser, alcohol and bleach.

Later there was a different expert, and she said that it would have to be anti viral specifically, anything with 60%+ alcohol.

I know this is getting into the details a little but I wondered about this discrepancy.

stevenwoo6 anni fa

Small study about virus in mucus but hand washing without any soap at all works by physically removing the virus, alcohol based sanitizer by destroying it in place. The study found mucus allowed the virus in question to survive alcohol based gel for longer than expected until the mucus dried. https://msphere.asm.org/content/4/5/e00474-19

jansan6 anni fa

That is what the Tweet says. Soap works best, but if you use alcohol, you should use >70% concentration. Jack Daniels won't help a lot in this case.

animalnewbie6 anni fa

How do I remember to check this comment back without commenting myself?

foepys6 anni fa

You can favorite comments when you click on the post time and then click on favorite.

m-p-36 anni fa

Save a link to this comment in your favorite ToDo list app.

krzat6 anni fa

Interesting, I wouldn't expect soap to be good at destroying viruses, only at removing it. Is there any research on this?

BTW these multi-tweets are just ridiculous.

ac296 anni fa

Soap is a surfactant [0], and one of its most useful properties is that it reduces the reluctance of oils and fats to disperse in water, which is why soaps are useful at cleaning your dishes, hair, and skin. Many viruses like coronavirus (so called "enveloped" viruses) are only held together by a thin lipid (fatty) layer, so in the presence of soap and water, they basically just fall apart.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfactant

lazyant6 anni fa

(regarding muti-tweets, and I agree) https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1236549305189597189.html

[deleted]6 anni fa

stevenwoo6 anni fa

Long form interview instead of a tweet stream - https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/3/11/21173187/co...

kwoff6 anni fa

Reminds me of an Applied Science video on cleaning in general (appropriate solvents, rinsing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiL6uPNlqRw