“Greetings!” Use soap, not hand sanitizer. That’s the message that weird but wonderful food expert (and self-proclaimed Thyme Lord) Alton Brown is spreading.
In his nearly five-minute-long video, Brown explains why exactly soap is better at getting rid of nasty things like viruses from your hands and why it’s so much better than dousing your hands in hand sanitizer. He also shows us how to properly wash our hands!
Before you start wondering that bars of soap might “reinfect” someone, Brown explicitly states that this has never been proven. Soap is safe to use. So use it.
You can watch Alton Brown's video about how great soap is and how to properly wash your hands right here
Image credits: Alton Brown
Brown’s video got more than 335k views in a day and is one of the most popular uploads on his YouTube channel.
Brown explained the science behind soap
Image credits: Alton Brown
Image credits: Alton Brown
Image credits: Alton Brown
Image credits: Alton Brown
Image credits: Alton Brown
Image credits: Alton Brown
Image credits: Alton Brown
Soap contains fat-like substances called amphiphiles which combine with the nasty stuff on your hands so you can wash it off
Image credits: Alton Brown
Image credits: Alton Brown
Image credits: Alton Brown
Image credits: Alton Brown
Image credits: Alton Brown
Image credits: Alton Brown
Image credits: Alton Brown
Image credits: Alton Brown
Image credits: Alton Brown
Brown showed us how to wash our hands and suggested we take 30 seconds doing this, not 20
Image credits: Alton Brown
Image credits: Alton Brown
Image credits: Alton Brown
According to the host of Good Eats, soap water emulsifies with the “nastiness” on your hands and removes it from your skin.
“But wait, there’s actually more. A virus, like coronavirus, is protected by a kind of coat made of fat-like substances and soap’s amphiphiles can just literally take hold of that coat and pull it away leaving the virus feeling naked and afraid’ and mostly dead,” Brown explains why soap is so great at protecting us. But what about hand sanitizer?
Well, Brown states that “alcohol-based sanitizers can kill viruses but since they can’t emulsify the nastiness that you got on your hands, they can’t physically remove the viruses or even actually reach them all which is why I count on soap.”
In other words, if you find that your local shop is out of hand sanitizer, don’t panic. And don’t start wondering how you can get some on the black market. Instead, buy some soap. Use that soap. Wash your hands. Wash ‘em good. Maybe even sing a song to make sure you’re washing them for more than 30 seconds. When you’re done, dry your hands well. This prevents the spread of “nastiness” even better.
Oh, and if you do have hand sanitizer at home, be sure to use it properly. Do not drink it. There have already been some isolated cases in some parts of Europe where people have to go to the hospital because they misused it. Hand sanitizer is meant for your hands (it’s in the name); not for your mouth, nor your tummy.
A lot of people enjoyed Brown's video
Some internet users agreed that thoroughly washing your hands with soap is important
