Everyone is sharing advice about washing your hands to decrease the spread of coronavirus. Many people have been using hand sanitizer instead, but this can be less effective over time. My husband and I recently watched a video by Alton Brown that spells out exactly why.
Basically, hand sanitizer doesn't remove the viruses and bacteria from your hands, it stunts its growth. A small percentage of the virus may still be able to infect after the hand sanitizer dries. In contrast, coronavirus (and other viruses and bacteria) can be broken by the emulsifying action of the soap. Handwashing with soap also removes the viruses from your skin, allowing it to be washed down the drain where it can't infect anyone.
Although most experts recommend washing your hands for at least 20 seconds, Alton Brown suggests 30 seconds to do a thorough job. And keep in mind that coronavirus lives in the air for several minutes and on hard surfaces for hours. That is why self quarantine and social distancing are so important to stop the spread of this nasty virus.
Stay safe, everyone!
Link: ABs Handwashing Tutorial - YouTube
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I'm sure studies were done to confirm these findings. That's why I like this kind of tip.
Thanks
I've been thinking that the answer may be to use the sanitizer to kill the germs, then use soap and water to wash them away.
Soap works better to kill the germs than hand sanitizer. Here is an article from the CDC about it.
A++ for the information---last school year 19/20 at Science Night at our elementary school..I was given the black light booth--basically a black box with black lights that I could turn on...I'd do 2 kids at once-1 would wash his hands with soap/water for 20 sec..& the other would lather up with hand sanitizer- guess what happened??? The soap/water got 99.9% clean & the kids were really up set when they saw how little the sanitizer removed very little of the germs....then the 4th grade boys told me that the liquid soap dispenser doesn't work in their bathroom at school..I checked with the 4th grade teachers & they told me the same issues about the boys bathroom..BUT, that has been like that for the most of 4 years...some teachers have the sanitize when entering the class room....needless to say I worked on it until it was taken care of!
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