As society begins planning to re-open businesses, protecting ourselves and each other from the coronavirus is still a paramount necessity. As we prepare to get back to a “new normal”, it’s important to remember that we’re armed with one of the oldest weapons in human history: SOAP.

In the global response to the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, one of the most potent defenses to slow the spread is to simply wash our hands regularly and thoroughly.

Made by saponification of triglycerides from vegetable or animal oils and fats, soap has been known to clean and defend us from everyday interactions, dating back to 2,800 BCE. But how does soap actually protect us?

We created COVID-19 and the Science of Soap to visualize how soap kills viruses, in order to help you understand and REMEMBER that 20-30 seconds of scrubbing destroys the virus that causes COVID-19.

Neon blue virus, cutaway to reveal the menacing magenta RNA inside.

If you’ve touched a surface contaminated with the coronavirus, washing your hands for 20-30 seconds can not only remove the virus from your hands, it can destroy it.

And not just SARS-CoV-2: proper washing with soap also has this effect on other viruses, such as the seasonal flu.

We hope you’ll download and share this video widely. From all of us at INVIVO: Stay safe, wash those hands, and remember, where there’s soap, there’s hope!


Watch our other videos in this series: The Science of a SnowflakeThe Science of Giving, The Science of Hope.
Learn more about the SARS-CoV-2 with
Coronavirus Explorer, our free app for the Microsoft HoloLens 2.