I thought this too, and then I read that coronavirus is an “enveloped virus” whose coating can actually be basically dissolved by soap & scrubbing:
PSA for non-science folks: Wonder why everyone is emphasizing hand washing? Sounds banal, but soap really IS an amazing weapon that we all have in our homes. This is because coronavirus is an “enveloped” virus, which means that it has an outer lipid membrane layer. Basically, it’s surrounded by a fat layer. Washing your hands with soap and water has the ability to “dissolve” this greasy fatty layer and kill the virus. I’m told singing “Happy Birthday” twice is approximately how long we should all be scrubbing our hands with soap.
On reflection, I don’t have a source I deeply trust for this. The quote above is from this tweet by a Johns Hopkins prof. Consider this a jumping off point for further investigation.
It looks like the lipid envelope is a feature of many viruses, including all influenza viruses:
The influenza virion (as the infectious particle is called) is roughly spherical. It is an enveloped virus – that is, the outer layer is a lipid membrane which is taken from the host cell in which the virus multiplies. Inserted into the lipid membrane are ‘spikes’, which are proteins – actually glycoproteins, because they consist of protein linked to sugars – known as HA (hemagglutinin) and NA (neuraminidase). These are the proteins that determine the subtype of influenza virus (A/H1N1, for example).
I thought this too, and then I read that coronavirus is an “enveloped virus” whose coating can actually be basically dissolved by soap & scrubbing:
On reflection, I don’t have a source I deeply trust for this. The quote above is from this tweet by a Johns Hopkins prof. Consider this a jumping off point for further investigation.
It looks like the lipid envelope is a feature of many viruses, including all influenza viruses:
source; Wikipedia and the NIH corroborate.