Science Monday: What Soap Types Work on COVID-19?
The science behind how “scrub for 20 seconds” battles a virus
Even when I was a child, my parents were always instructing me to wash my hands. Now, with the spread of COVID-19, this same piece of advice from my childhood is once again ever-present.
It’s probably the single most-repeated advice for keeping safe from this disease, and it comes from all sources. Even in states where formal shelter-in-place orders haven’t been issued, the call has still gone out to keep your hands clean, especially after going outside or making contact with others.
But while hand-washing removes visible dirt, it’s always a little harder to tell what effect it’s having on the invisible bacteria and viruses that are present. I’ve previously written about what happens to the bacteria after we kill them, either with antibacterial soap or with hand sanitizer.
One interesting discussion point that’s come up in the past is the fact that, while many of our hand soaps proudly proclaim that, thanks to additives, they are antibacterial, COVID-19 is a…
