Defeating coronavirus does not require a flamethrower or a nuclear weapon. We have an arsenal of preventative weapons at our fingertips:  common soap.  However, FLASS knows you might be tired of being told to wash your hands. So we are going to tell you why soap and water are the number one weapons in your arsenal of home-defense against COVID-19.

 

Defeating Coronavirus at the molecular level

Washing Your Hands May Not Defeat Coronavirus by Itself, But It Can Inhibit the Transmission.

You Have the Lives of the Community in Your Hands…And Maybe the Lives of Your Loved Ones.

Put simply, we know soap breaks up the molecules of the virus itself. We have known thi for centuries. Washing our hands with soap and water is key to public health.  And recently it became common knowledge that the practice “can significantly slow the rate of a pandemic and limit the number of infections.”

 

The Soap Opera of Human History

On the one hand, according to the New York Times, a legend stated the story of soap thus:  “Rain washed the fat and ash from frequent animal sacrifices into a nearby river, where they formed a lather with a remarkable ability to clean skin and clothes.”

On the other hand, humanity might have discovered soap by boiling and crushing fatty plants. Either way, it is one of our “most effective defenses against invisible pathogens.”

 

Defeating Coronavirus Under the Microscope

Let’s take a deeper look at that pure and gentle bar of simple soap that resides by our sink. It’s not so innocent. You see, it would look lethal to you if you were a microorganism.  You see, here’s what can happen if you are a bacteria or a virus:  From a molecular perspective, a simple, magical drop of soap diluted in water could rupture and kill you.  Think of it like salt on a snail. (Ew!) That’s right, soap is “sufficient to rupture and kill many types of bacteria and viruses.” And that is true of its effect on the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and our current Pandemic.

 

Coronavirus and Arch Enemy Soap:  Under the Lens

Imagine that you see soap under a high-power microscope.  It is created with molecules that look a little like pins.

  • The head of the “pin” bonds easily with water. We call it hydrophilic.
  • But the tail of the pin-shaped soap molecule is hydrophobic, which means it hates water. It links up with oils and fats.
  • When water is added, these soap molecules float around, interacting with other molecules. They make bubbles.
  • In these bubbles, named micelles, the heads point out and they tuck their tails inside.

Now viruses like the coronavirus have little coats of lipid membranes. These resemble double-layered micelles. They are spherical with “two bands of hydrophobic tails sandwiched between two rings of hydrophilic heads.”

 

Soap Bubbles versus Protein Spikes

COVID-19 Spikes Can Enter and Seriously Damage Delicate Lung Tissue.

The membranes are studded with spikes of proteins. Those spikes are the weapon with which the virus invades a living cell.  And they can destroy lungs in very short order, as we have seen by the rapid progress of COVID-19.

Other viruses act the same way as the coronavirus when confronted with soap micelles. “Pathogens wrapped in lipid membranes include coronaviruses, H.I.V., viruses that cause hepatitis B and C, herpes, Ebola, Zika, dengue, and numerous bacteria that attack the intestines and respiratory tract.” And, yes, they include the coronavirus.

 

Here’s the Good Soapy News

FLASS wants you to know that when you wash your hands with soap and water, you are cloaking the microorganisms with soap molecules. Here’s the fascinating story of what is happening while you lather and scrub.

  • Firstly, the hydrophobic tails of the free-floating soap molecules attempt their usual evasion of the water.
  • With their appetite for oils, they almost accidentally invade the envelopes of viruses. (Remember they don’t like water and the nice fatty lipid coats of the virus attract the soap.
  • Thus the soap destroys or murders the virus by destroying their protective coating of lipids.

Referring to the molecules of soap, Professor Pall Thordarson stated: “They act like crowbars and destabilize the whole system.”  Professor Thordarson is the acting head of chemistry at the University of New South Wales. He adds, “Essential proteins spill from the ruptured membranes into the surrounding water, killing the bacteria and rendering the viruses useless.”

 

Soap and Water are Primary Weapons

Defeat Coronavirus with Simple Soap and Water.

COVID-19 Infection: Simple Soap and Water Rise to the Level of Personal and Community Protection.

FLASS says, now you know why soap and water and the washing of hands is so important.

Washing with soap and water is an effective way to destroy and dislodge many microbes. This includes the new coronavirus. If you like details such as these, check out another article that takes you on a microscopic journey to see the coronavirus invade your cells.

If you have read this article carefully, we bet you never look at a timid little bar of soap in the same way again. There it sits, like a molecular gun, patiently waiting to blast the coronavirus off your hands. It can save you from COVID-19.

Did you know your hands touch your face, the gateway to your respiratory system, about once every 2.5 minutes?  When you walk by that sink, we hope you realize the value of the arsenal at your finger-tips.  Go ahead, lather it up, scrub it down and get those micelles going. That’s the public health secret to defeating the coronavirus before it attacks.