Paphos People

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More common sense, for those lacking any:

"So there are lots of people from the health service telling everyone that washing your hands is the best way to defeat Covid-19, but lots of people (most?) seem to think that this is a bit silly. Like how the hell can washing your hands be so important, and how can it defeat a virus that’s causing so much havoc worldwide? Well here’s the science bit.

The outer wall of a virus is made of lipids, they’re kinda like oils or fats, that’s a simple way of putting it. It’s called a lipid layer. Behind the lipid layer is the virus, it’s made up of proteins and RNA, which is kinda like DNA and it’s what lets the virus replicate. That’s really it, it’s that simple.

So, what about the washing of hands with soap? Here’s the part that nobody is being told, but it’s important. Soap is made up of loads and loads of lipids, its what makes soap feel so soft and smooth.

When you wash your hands really well you get all these lipids on your hands. So if you have Covid-19 on your hands the lipids in the virus wall start to break down, because the lipids in the virus lipid layer are soluble in the lipids in your soap on your hands.

So when you break down the lipid layer you end up destroying the proteins and the RNA. It’s kinda like years ago when your Dad used to clean a paintbrush with turpentine, it’s because the paint was soluble in turpentine.....it’s really that simple. Also, people are searching high and low for antibacterial soap....don’t bother. This is a virus, not a bacteria. Also, antibacterial soap is really just expensive soap.

Break down the lipid layer with lipids in soap and you’ll kill the virus.

Feel free to share."

Thank you
All information helps!

I guess you are refering to bars of soap? Does liquid soap have a similar chemical makeup ?

You can use soap bars, liquid soap or indeed even washing up liquid

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Dave
Moira And Dave

“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”

I only use washing up liquid in our liquid soap dispensers at home and the same brand for liquid washing detergent.

Never felt the need to have a huge range of cleaning products when a few items do many jobs just as effectively and some of the old-fashioned cleaning methods using natural products work just as well.

Reminds me of when all the different pain relief tablets came out and you could buy one for back pain, another for headaches and the list went on - but when you check the list on the box it was the same on each one!

Important thing about the hand washing in the current situation is to do it often and do it properly.