Why Is Washing Hands with Soap Better Than Using Hand Sanitizer?

In another installment of "How We Kill the Coronavirus to Leave Us in Peace", the basic recommendation from experts is to wash your hands with water and soap for a minimum of twenty seconds, and use alcohol gel as a supplement. However, many people out there insist on depending exclusively on the gel. YouTuber Alton Brown explains why soap is the superior option, with easy-to-digest technical details, and a touch of humor at the end.

COVID-19 is out there, and we must try to stay home. But the disease doesn't obey times or protocols. If it has the chance to infect you, it will, and for that reason our defense needs to be active, with good discipline. Now, that doesn't include hoarding toilet paper and alcohol gel as if it were the end of the world. In the first place, the virus doesn't care how you wipe your butt, and second... alcohol gel isn't that effective at its job.

Granted, it has plenty of capacity to kill SARS-CoV-2, but there's a small detail: The corpse stays on your hands. That's where YouTuber Alton Brown steps in, who recently explained the superiority of soap when it comes to keeping our hands clean.

The Science of Soap

When we lather our hands, what we do is release amphiphilic molecules, which have a very particular characteristic: one hydrophilic end (attracted to water) and one hydrophobic end (repels water). That means they can hold together things that wouldn't naturally mix, like water and oil. If a virus or bacteria reaches our hands, with the help of good agitation, the amphiphilic molecules and soapy water create an emulsion that can capture the nefarious invader and physically remove it from our skin.

However, that's not all: viruses like the coronavirus are protected by an outer layer, but the action of the amphiphilic molecules leaves those viruses naked, unprotected, and essentially dead. Here's the huge difference between soap and alcohol gel: The former kills and removes the virus from your hands, while the latter kills it, but it remains there... on the surface. That's why it's so important to use alcohol gel as a supplement, not as the main weapon.

Towards the end of the video, Alton explains that liquid soap is adequate though not ideal, that antibacterial soap is useless, and that it's a good idea to carry a bar of soap stored in a small tin, along with a small bag with paper to dry yourself (no hot air). Also, the famous "20 seconds of washing" should be closer to 45. The short ends with an extreme solution (or rather, a small dose of dark humor), but the rest of the material remains valid.