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To: bitt

OK, good to know but is there a common ingredient in soap that causes this breakdown of the virus? Soap is marketed as Goats Milk, Oatmeal and so on. I doubt those type ingredients make viruses coil in fear.


7 posted on 03/16/2020 12:27:01 PM PDT by DAC21 ( and Naflet had demint)
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To: DAC21

I think that the key is lye, but someone else should be able to say that more authoritatively.


30 posted on 03/16/2020 1:08:38 PM PDT by Hieronymus ("I shall drink--to the Pope, if you please,-still, t Conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards.")
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To: DAC21
"... is there a common ingredient in soap ..."

Yes. The common ingredient is SOAP.

Here's my simplistic and perhaps not completely accurate description.

Water consists of molecules of H2O. That is, two hyrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom. The two hydrogen atoms do not position themselves on opposite sides of the oxygen but, instead, are closer to each other. That results in a polar molecule that has a positive end and a negative end.

Oils and fats tend to be non-polar molecules; that is there is no positive or negative end. Such molecules can be sticky and resist being washed away by water.

Soap is a more complicated molecule and has a polar end and a non-polar end. The polar end can stick to oil. The non-polar end can allow the molecule to be mixed with the water. Basically, the soap molecule sticks to the oil and allows itself to be washed away by the water, taking the oil with it.

The reason that soap can kill viruses is because part of the virus is really an oil. The soap disrupts the structure of the virus and disables it permanently.

34 posted on 03/16/2020 1:11:22 PM PDT by William Tell
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To: DAC21
"OK, good to know but is there a common ingredient in soap that causes this breakdown of the virus?"

ANY soap/detergent molecule has two "sections". One end is strongly ionic, the other end is not. The ionic end bonds strongly to water molecules, the non-ionic end to the lipid (fat) wall of the virus. The viral lipid "wall" or "capsule" is literally ripped apart.

That special molecular structure is what makes "soap" soap.

46 posted on 03/16/2020 2:00:25 PM PDT by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel and NRA Life Member)
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