Why does soap work so well on the coronavirus and other viruses?

  • Has anyone seen the film of oil that may appear on the surface of the water when washing dishes? You add a little bit of washing liquid, and kind of like a popped balloon, the surface retreats to the edges of the sink pretty fast?

    On the BBC yesterday they had a virologist who said the envelope would be destroyed by soap, sanitiser, alcohol and bleach.

    Later there was a different expert, and she said that it would have to be anti viral specifically, anything with 60%+ alcohol.

    I know this is getting into the details a little but I wondered about this discrepancy.

  • Interesting, I wouldn't expect soap to be good at destroying viruses, only at removing it. Is there any research on this?

    BTW these multi-tweets are just ridiculous.

  • Long form interview instead of a tweet stream - https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/3/11/21173187/co...

  • Reminds me of an Applied Science video on cleaning in general (appropriate solvents, rinsing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiL6uPNlqRw