This is a cut and paste from a reenacting friend of ours from Malta – but it’s so well written that I just know everyone is going to be sharing it around. Read – and Wash Hands! Singing Happy Birthday twice is about 20 seconds… in case you wanted to know.

“Why can a common cleaner, available for hundreds of years be so effective against a 21-Century pandemic virus?

Well it comes down to the makeup of soap. Soap molecules have two halves, one loves water, the other loves Lipid’s, which are fats like oil and grease. The real name for these molecules is AMPHIPHILIC (amp-er-phil-ic) meaning it is Hydrophilic (loves water) and Lipophilic
(fat loving). This is what makes it so good for washing up. Soap bonds to the fats on your breakfast plate and to the water it is being washed in.
Corona Virus is made up of a ball (membrane) of Lipids containing the Virus’s RNA.

When you wash your hands, the soap lipids bond with the virus lipids and the water you are using and break the virus membrane apart, literally shredding it.

The trick is to wash long and hard enough to break all the virus membranes on your skin. 20 seconds is the average time for the bonds to break. But even if you don’t break all the membranes, the soap still clings like mad to the viruses and you wash them away under the tap.
Hand- sanitiser uses alcohol to break down the virus lipids, but it is really volatile being 60-70% alcohol, so gives it much less time to work, as it evaporates.

With soap you can just keep on going.”

Paul Osborne IEng APkgPrf MIET MIMMM
Managing Director – Performance PharmaTech Ltd.

Ok – Admit it – you read it all the way to the end right? It’s just a lovely easy read!

Be safe. Be Healthy

Wash hands!

The Soup Lady