A virus is very very very small.
It's about in scientific terms
a hundred and twenty nanometers
in size across for the covid virus.
If you took the covid viruses and you
added them next to each other to form
a chain you would need ten thousand
covid viruses to equal the same size
as a full-stop.
That also explains why face masks
have to be really high-grade for you
to have a degree of protection against
the covid virus because the fabric
and the folds within the face mask
are such that the virus can penetrate
through unless it's specially designed
or a very very high grade
and a virus really is comprised of
two pieces of chemistry.
It has at its core a length of molecules
which are all linked together
around about 30,000 of them
and that gives the genetic information
from the virus and it's all mangled up
and the second part of the virus is
its outer coating and that outer
coating is really essentially just a layer
of grease.
The way in which soap works against
the virus is it's made up of two parts.
It has a long tail
which is really grease-loving
and it has a really water-attracting part
so when you put soap on your hands
what happens is the soap molecules
go into the coating of the virus and the
greasy part of the soap goes to the
greasy part of the virus and acts as
a molecular crowbar to open the virus
up and help to inactivate it.
To wash your hands properly you
need to have about 20 seconds
with hot water and with soap.
The reason for that is that the
the temperature increases the rate
in which the soap works by rubbing
your hands together quite thoroughly
and by cleaning each part you make
sure the soap molecules get into all
the folds of your skin to make sure
if there is any virus lurking it will help
to remove the virus
and it's also important that you have
running water because that helps to
wash the virus away.
If you don't have available soap
the next best thing for you
is washing-up liquid to be able to
inactivate the virus.
The washing-up liquid contains
very very similar molecules to what
you have in soap.
It consists of this long tail which can
help of waxy molecules which can
help to break open the virus.
If you run out of soap you can fill your
soap dispenser up with about 1/3
to 1/4 of washing-up liquid.
Fill it with water shake it and then you
can use it and that will be very effective in pretty
in pretty much the same way as what
you have in normal soap. But it could
dry your hands out a little more.
Now after washing-up liquid
the next best would be to use your
hand sanitizers.
Your hand sanitizers contain alcohol
and alcohol has very similar properties
to soap molecules. It has a water-loving
end and it also has a tiny little
molecular crowbar, a greasy end
which can go into the virus coating
and help to split the coating apart.
But it tends not to be quite as effective
as soap as this and also you need
to have quite a high concentration
of alcohol, typically 70% or more.
If you're looking at a surface and you're
looking to clean your surfaces at home
the gold standard for inactivating
the virus is just household bleach.
Household bleach contains two
components which can really help to
disable the virus. Those 2 components
are something called a surfactant
and the surfactant acts in pretty much
the same way as the soap molecules do and how to break apart
and how to break apart this greasy
layer but also and this is the key
ingredient, a Superman molecule if you
like, is a molecule called
sodium hypochlorite.
Now sodium hypochlorite in water can
produce chlorine. Think swimming pools
That chlorine can actually get in and
interfere with the genetic code of the
virus, it can react at a chemical level to
help split it apart and inactivate it or to
change some of the chemistry of the
virus, which really just kills the virus.
If you don't have bleach then Dettol
I shouldn't give a trade name here
but you can use an antibacterial surface
cleaner will work.
It doesn't work quite as well but it will
work pretty effectively to be able to
clean your surfaces.
Now the information that the
government has given people about
this virus is that we're doing something
called social distancing and that is
where you have a two meter gap
between you and other people.
The reason you have a two meter gap
is that if you cough or you sneeze
which are the main methods in you
transmitting the virus in particular
coughs that 95% is transmitted through
coughs and only 5% through sneezes
the virus particles will spread out.
Now often with viruses and we don't
know exactly for covid but for most
viruses you need to have a certain
critical number of viruses into your body
before it triggers the full virus mutation
processes and the virus propagation
and so by keeping your distance if
someone does cough the distance that
the viruses have to travel is such that
they will be very very diluted or even
disappeared completely at a 2 meter
distance which is why there is
this recommendation.