"ZICAM--IT'S AMAZING.”

This was interesting.  I'd never heard of Zicam.  Thanks to Lew Rockwell.  

Writes Brian Dunaway: 

Lew,

You’ve posted quite a lot of material with the word “zinc” in it.I noted in one article by Bill Sardi that “zinc inhibits growth and replication of RNA viruses like coronaviruses.” A light went on when I read that.

I’ve been using Zicam to ward off colds for years, and its efficacy is stunning, especially if you use it at the first indication of a cold. I tell everyone about it. The conversation usually runs something like. “You really should use Zicam – it’s amazing.” Typical response: “OK.” To which I reply, “No – dude – it’s like you didn’t even catch a cold.”

Bill Sardi suggests zinc lozenges. Maybe I didn’t take the right kind, but the results after several attempts were: bupkus.  My chemical engineering perspective suggests to me it’s all about the transport mechanism. If taken orally, the transport path (for any substance) is much more slow and inefficient than introducing it directly into the bloodstream. (I note that one COVID-19 treatment is IV Vitamin C.)  Absorption into the mucous membranes is essentially that.

I use the oral mist because I believe the nasal variety no longer contains zinc. (Some users were complaining of loss of olfactory function.) Further chemical engineering instruction: After spraying it under your tongue, take your (clean) finger and wipe it all around the mucous membranes of your mouth (this increases the mass transfer film coefficient – trust me), including the gums (I saw someone in a movie do this with cocaine). Zicam instructions say to swallow it – I spit it out, because it upsets my stomach (they mention that as a possibility), and I don’t believe it’s effective orally anyway. Do follow the other instructions.  Since I live with an 89YO, I take extra caution, and essentially use Zicam as a prophylactic.

INDOOR TRANSMISSION OF THE CORONAVIRUS IS 18.7% LIKELIER, SO LA MAYOR, ERIC GARCETTI, WANTS TO PUT LA HOMELESS POPULATION INSIDE RECREATION CENTERS

I find all of the government interventions into COVID-19 threat absolutely ridiculous.  If as a child, your mother took your temperature and learned that you had the flu, what would she tell you to do?  Stay at home.  But today we've got the government mothering the American citizen, but instead of telling "its children" to stay home, the government commands "Shelter in Place."  The difference is that your mother actually cared for you, whereas the government wants to control you, they want to dictate to you what you can do, how close you can get to someone, what type of protective gear you should be using.  In effect, the government wants to dispossess you of personal sovereignty and executive decision-making of your own life, including your own survival skills.  They don't care for you.  Nor do they have any regard for your private exchange of relevant information with your doctor.  The government wants to override too many aspects of your own survival skills.  Further, the flu has a specific duration: it runs between 3 to 7 days.  Government edicts, on the other hand, can last a lifetime and longer.  

And let's grant the government edicts some level of practicality.  Let's say that wearing a mask works to protect you from airborne viruses, including protects other people; in this sense, then there is some level of ethics being applied by mask-wearers.  It's nice.  Is it urgent?  Is it required, I mean, say beyond what is required for the ordinary seasonal flu that occurs during the flu season?  Not really.  But I like the effort, I like the intention.  I don't like that these American puppets are wearing a mask, keeping 6-feet from you in line at the grocery store, and talking to the cashier behind an Adhoc plexiglass pane hanging above a checkout counter. And no one questions the wisdom of what the government does, whether what they do works or doesn't work, who it effects, how much it costs . . . well, they never count the cost of anything.  Even this latest $2,000,000,000,000 stimulus package where adults are promised $1,200, the government refuses to count the cost because they don't pay the cost.  Tax-payers bear the cost, not the government.  In fact, the government is calculating the next 10 different programs on which to charge the American taxpayer.

Folks have gotten lost.  We used to know that the country was different from the government.  Not today.  Not as far as I can see.  Jacob Hornberger recently wrote 

 Actually, the government and the country are two separate and distinct entities.  That phenomenon is reflected by the Bill of Rights, which expressly protects the country from the government. 

Note the language of the Constitution.  It provides protection from the government; it doesn't say that the United States IS the government.  

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression from government interference.

My point in this post is to say that folks have lost their good sense.  Call it overload in the age of information.  Call it being overwhelmed.  Call it illiteracy.  I don't know what I can point to to account for it, but folks have lost their good sense.  Here, Professor Eduardo Allegri comments on the global social discipline governments looking for more power have wrought on the backs of COVID-19, for which any failures occur they can always point to people not following orders.  Here are my highlights of his comments: 

I don’t care about coronavirus. 

I don’t care about the hysteria.

I don’t care about it as a topic of conversation.

I don’t care particularly about it as a cause of death.

I don’t care about it as producing panic and terror. 

He continues . . . 

A COSMIC LABORATORY OF SOCIAL DISCIPLINE

Cowed by hysteria and terror, men move like a shoal, like a flock, in unison, Allegri writes. They have suspended judgment, conscience, and common sense. They are obliterating these on the altar of global discipline. Allegri calls this a cosmic, massive laboratory of social discipline the likes of which has never been seen before. He adds, “I don't care if this is by design or if it was a fluke.”

TOGETHER IN ISOLATION

Everybody has been isolated from each other. Quote, “A sneeze scares, a cough demolishes friendship, a little fever condemns to ostracism.” Allegri stresses that out of 7.7 billion men on the globe 0.0020% have been directly affected by the situation. The rest is moving in packs and shoals, not together but separated, isolated, far from each other. 

What I really wanted to comment on is government incompetence.  I know it's a cliche, there are a million of them.  "Government is the employer of last resort."  Nothing so permanent as a temporary government program."  Then I saw this headline:  

CDC: Japanese Data Show Indoor Coronavirus Transmission 18.7 Times Likelier, as Garcetti Moves L.A. Homeless to Rec Centers 

Tom Woods like to refer to government bureaucrats as our "Overlords," which sure they'd like to be and pretend to be.  But there is nothing about them that we can admire.  We don't like their power, number one.  We don't like their enforcement arm of fines, jail/prison, or worse.  The only wisdom in their plans tends toward evil.  Take the above headline.  Garcetti wants to house the homeless in the backyards of middle-class, suburban residents in recreation centers, a service now that will requisition more tax dollars.  So one government agency, the CDC, publicizes information showing that indoor transmission is 18.7% likelier only to learn that LA Mayor, Eric Garcetti, wants to house the homeless into two places--recreation centers across the San Gabriel Valley and the LA Convention Center downtown.  

Los Angeles Mayor, Eric Garcetti

Here is his order to use the Convention Center as a Federal Medical Station to, according to the tweet, help relieve our nearby hospitals. Really?  There are so many Coronavirus outbreaks that you need to convert the LA Convention Center into a virus relief station?  From the different nurses that I talk to, they see very few, if any, COVID-19 patients come through their doors.  

We are utilizing every resource to confront the COVID-19 crisis: @ConventionLA will now become a federal medical station, led by @HHSGov and @USNationalGuard to help relieve our nearby hospitals.

Thank you to our partners for your support during this national pandemic. pic.twitter.com/RlRWmK6dmT

— Mayor Eric Garcetti (@MayorOfLA) March 30, 2020

Breitbart explains that 

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti is moving hundreds of homeless people into recreation centers in residential areas—a policy that is receiving increasing scrutiny and criticism from residents and the media. 

I'd like to know where.

If you're at all worried about the flu or the cold or the COVID-19, then take extra vitamin D, vitamin C, and zinc.  Problem solved.  These vitamins help directly with your innate immunity.  They make you stronger.  A mask doesn't do that.  A distance of 6-feet doesn't do that.  All that these gestures prove is that you're very obedient to Uncle Sam or Uncle Donald or Uncle Barry, one or the other.

N95 RESPIRATOR MASKS DO WORK TO DETER AIRBORNE RESPIRATORY VIRUSES

Turns out that masks that cover the mouth and nose actually are effective at deterring airborne respiratory diseases. The mask they recommend? The mask in question is the N95 Respirator Mask.

Thanks to Lew Rockwell.

You'll be hard-pressed to find any N95 Respirator Masks on Amazon, but you can and will find them at eBay.

U.S. DEATHS FROM THE SEASONAL FLU: 12,000; U.S. DEATHS FROM COVID-19: 802.

Hopkins Medicine compares the number of deaths from the seasonal flu versus the COVID-19:

COVID-19: Approximately 19,625 deaths reported worldwide; 802 deaths in the U.S., as of Mar. 25, 2020.* 

Flu: 291,000 to 646,000 deaths worldwide; 12,000 to 61,000 deaths in the U.S. per year. 

I don't want to say "Let that sink in," but at least think about this comparison and then tell me what is more dangerous to the U.S.: 802 or 12,000?  If you're reading this at all it does mean that you're not reacting to fear as much as the rest of the population is.  And when a large enough group of folks get scared and start reacting irrationally, like too many at the stores are doing, then we have a problem, and I don't like where it is leading to.  Hopefully, businesses will re-open and get back to business and all governments will get out of the way.  

Scientific American has an article out comparing the Coronavirus, COVID-19 with the seasonal flu.  Its headline reads

The flu has already caused about 12,000 deaths this season in the U.S. alone.

And yet you're not afraid of this.  Huh.  

But tell people that one novel virus, a respiratory flu virus, has killed a few hundred, and you're ready to lay down and hand to the government your complete individual sovereignty?  Huh.

As of today, Wednesday, March 25, 2020, Statist.com shows that the number of deaths worldwide from the coronavirus, or deaths as a cofactor, is 18,906.  

Italy is the country with the most recorded deaths by country with 6,820.  There are a lot of factors as to why so many deaths are occurring in Italy.  Check this out for five of those factors. 

Thanks to Robert Wenzel for this video. 

China has 3,281 deaths.

Spain has 2,991.

Iran has 1,934. 

France has 1,100.

United States has 784. 

United Kingdom has 422. 

Jim Ostrowski breaks down the numbers as a percentage of a population segment:

DAILY REPORT ON US DEATH RATE

March 25

CASES--------DEATHS------DEATHS PER 1000

54,963---------784-------------14.26

March 25---DEATHS PER 1000-----14.26
March 24---DEATHS PER 1000-----12.60

This is a significant increase over yesterday.

The virus as we all know strikes people over 70 hardest--global death rate for over 80 is 14.8%.

For those under 40, it's 0.2% or double the flu (With incomplete data).

The illness hits men harder than women.

The number one problem essentially causing all the others is that the government has artificially reduced the supply of tests below what a free market would have supplied. This is why the government goes to plan B, imprisoning you in your home and wrecking the economy.

In other words, progressivism is murdering us and imprisoning us.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Over 70 or with health issues, wear a mask in public. It's cool, we get it.
2. Exercise
3. Get 30 minutes of sun per day.
4. Take vitamins--C and D and zinc.
5. Any symptoms, avoid contact with others.

It may be time for all Americans to wear masks in public. (I made sure that we had ONE for each member of the family back in January when the MSM and Democrats were busy impeaching Trump for exercising obvious Article II powers.)

I wore leather gloves outside yesterday. Will that help?

Back to being imprisoned for the crime of living under an incompetent big-government that is killing us.

Will these be my last words, "Where's my test kit?"

The JAMA Network provides us with some valuable numbers.  Whereas most people have been instructed by the government authorities to fear their own shadow--to shelter in place (limit activity and reduce your vitamin D absorption), to wash your hands incessantly, and self-quarantine all out of fear from a virus that has either directly or as a cofactor killed over a span of 6 months less than 20,000 worldwide, the JAMA Network provides us with numbers that puts the deaths, the virus and the panic in perspective, 

Lost in the discussion about COVID-19 is the fact that the US is experiencing a severe influenza season that has already resulted in more than 16 000 deaths. This JAMA Infographic compares prevalence and number of deaths for the 2 diseases.

\

 

ISCHIAL TUBEROSITY PAIN IS THAT PAIN IN YOUR BUTT

One of the best descriptions as to why you get a pain in the butt.  And her anatomical prop made her points really clear.  Enjoy.  

VITAMIN D SUPPLEMENTATION REDUCES THE RISK OF RESPIRATORY INFECTION [HINT: THAT'S THE COVID-19]

Secret weapon against coronavirus?https://t.co/WEQ7oxxvo7

— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 23, 2020

Thanks to Steve Bartin.

This should not come as a secret or a surprise to any visitors to this site.  Unfortunately, Former CDC Director, Tom Frieden was interviewed by John Roberts, long-time CBS Anchor.  The problem is that Roberts leads the questioning and the answers that Frieden gives are standard: stay at home, quarantine a person infected, etc., etc., etc., ad infinitum.  Is he talking to 6-year-olds?  Anyone old enough, from a 9-year-old child to an octogenarian, knows that if you're sick with anything that you stay home.  Now it is true that though high school kids may know this they don't heed this warning because they've got friends to attend to, they've got games and projects that need their hands on.  So it's true that some people need to have this message droned into their head, but if you're at all conscientious you're not going to want to get people sick and sabotage their productivity.  

So take your daily vitamin D for the reasons that Dr. Frieden states here,

Vitamin D supplementation reduces the risk of respiratory infection, regulates cytokine production and can limit the risk of other viruses such as influenza. A respiratory infection can result in cytokine storms – a vicious cycle in which our inflammatory cells damage organs throughout the body – which increase mortality for those with COVID-19. Adequate Vitamin D may potentially provide some modest protection for vulnerable populations. 

Frieden is downplaying the effectiveness of vitamin D because as a former government agent, he has to stay on the plantation narrative of "shelter in place," "accept martial law," "self-quarantine," "wear a mask," "wash your hands," etc., etc., etc.  

Check out what Dr. John Cannell, owner of the Vitamin D Council site, has to say about what vitamin D does for you.  Then check out what Creighton University professor, Robert P. Heaney says about the protective effects of vitamin D, which go way beyond strengthening your immune system.  Need more evidence?  Scroll down this page about 2/3 to find other vitamin D experts to see what they say about what it does and how it can restore your health.  Like I said, I've covered the powerful effects of vitamin D several times.  It's too important a supplement not to have in your daily arsenal.  

I've had good results with this brand.  And the price is not bad either.

AUTHORITIES ARE UNABLE TO DISTINGUISH WHO DIED AS A RESULT OF [COVID-19] . . . OR OTHER SERIOUS DISEASES

In the commentary below, Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Health Committee, discusses problems with the COVID-19 tests that are going on and the general panic surrounding the Coronavirus.  As of March 18, 2020, 1.2 million people have watched this presentation.

Thanks to Robert Wenzel and Karen DeCoster.  At TargetLiberty, Wenzel points out that 

that positive deceased patients have an average of over 80 years - 80.3 to be exact - and are essentially predominantly male (Women are just 25.8 percent).

And he noted:

The majority of the dead were carriers of chronic diseases.

At present, in fact, the authorities are unable to distinguish those who died as a result of the virus, from those who were mostly carriers of other serious diseases and who, therefore, would not have died from Covid-19," he said.

ISOLATING 70 YEAR OLDS IS FOR THEIR OWN GOOD, SAYS BRITISH HEALTH SECRETARY, MATT HANCOCK

Though I think that Jimmy Dore is terrific on exposing political hypocrisies, his explanation of how the Federal Reserve creates money seems confused.  Here he and his comedic staff cite MMT, Modern Monetary Theory as the process by which the Fed is creating money.  

Next, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, Anthony Fauci, sounds like a psychopath, someone who wants to use government fiat to halt human activity across a country 325 million in size.  He wants to mandate that everybody stay home.  First, if people are inside for hours and days they're not getting enough vitamin D that would protect them against viruses.  So off the bat, the head of the NIAI is offering extremely poor health advice, and Trump should fire him immediately.  Second, what right does the government have to tell property owners that they cannot operate their businesses, property that has previously been used in generating their livelihood?  Fauci is an absolute nut.  

Robert Wenzel reviews Fauci's comments on Meet the Press and other Sunday morning news programs.  

 Murray Rothbard regularly pointed out that wars enable governments to get more authoritarian.

He often quoted Randolph Bourne's observation that "war is the health of the state."

But don't think for a minute that bloody wars overseas are the only way states can grow rapidly. We are learning this first hand with the panic over COVID-19.

I have no doubt that this fear will result in legislation that puts more control in the hands of the state. Shady legislation is already starting to move.

Almost any kind of legislation can be passed in this atmosphere of panic.

And if there is one thing that is clear about Trump, it is that he is terrible at picking advisers. The White House is filled with neocon warmongers but his worst adviser may be the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, Anthony Fauci.

Trump should have fired the bastard the day he took office. Instead, he has now made Fauci part of the coronavirus task force and praises Fauci publicly.

I can't think of anyone in the administration that is stoking more fear with the general public. Without any foundation, he has testified before congress that COVID-19 has a mortality rate of 10 times the flu. There is no factual basis for this, it is complete fearmongering. 

Fauci is, in effect, lying to Americans. 

He never ever puts things in perspective. He always heightens the panic. And he had plenty of opportunities this morning to do just that and he took full advantage. This morning he went on all the Sunday talk shows and cranked up the fear on each show.

He told "Face the Nation": 

      Right now, personally, myself, I wouldn’t go to a restaurant. 

Only to get more sadistic on CNN:

             For a while, life is not going to be the way it used to be in the United States. We have to just accept that if we want to do what’s best for the American public.

 And then on CNN pretty close to an outright lie, outside of some extreme outlier:

             There are going to be people who are young who are going to wind up getting seriously ill. 

Then more fearmongering on "Meet The Press":

             I think Americans should be prepared that they are going to have to hunker down significantly more than we as a country are doing.

I mean take a look at what this guy said, he pretty much said he would be in favor of a 14 day shut down of the entire country. The "Meet The Press" transcript:

Notice he didn't push back against the 14-day national shutdown, he went as far as he could in spewing panic that he thought he could get away with.

I really think he is mentally ill.

SurgeonGeneral Jerome Adams almost sounds rational compared to Fauci. At least he said at yesterday's press conference that "Almost all people will recover---98%--99%." 

Though there is plenty of evil in the U.S. government, it isn't the only cesspool for crime.  Take the United Kingdom, for example.  What they're proposing to do with older people, 70 years and older, is absolute criminal.  Isn't this kidnapping?  Russian Times in the UK writes, 

UK’s Health Secretary confirmed plans to isolate people aged over 70 for up to four months amid a coronavirus pandemic. The goal is to protect them, but critics say it may be a really bad idea. 

That wording is absolutely sinister, "We absolutely appreciate that it is a very big ask of the elderly and the vulnerable, and it's for their own self-protection," Hancock told Sky News' Sophy Ridge.  

Matt Hancock, Britain's Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Oh, I see, it's for their own good.  Well, if it were for their own good, why would they need a government action plan to enforce something that is so good?  Lock Matt up.  Call this what it is: tyranny.  Even 80-year-old Brit, John Pilger is lukewarm in his reaction to the plan to pen British citizens under some kind of wartime measure.  Governments around the world are inventing the seriousness of COVID-19 to usher in new forms of murder.

The Johnson govt is to launch a "wartime" attack on Britain's elderly by forcing people over 70 into isolation for four months. A 2012 study showed isolation killed the elderly. Having destroyed state social care, extremist UK governments are now culling the expendable. Fascism.

— John Pilger (@johnpilger) March 15, 2020

Then Tom DiLorenzo writes in a post, titled "A National Emergency Declaration Is the Health of the State."

“It automatically sets in motion throughout society those irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the Government in coercing into obedience the minority groups of individuals which lack the larger herd sense. The machinery of government sets and enforces the drastic penalties, the minorities are either intimidated into silence or brought slowly around by a subtle process of persuasion.”

“There is . . . in the feeling toward the State a large element of pure filial mysticism. This sense of insecurity, the desire for protection, sends one’s desire back to the father and mother, with whom is associated the earliest feeling of protection . . . .  [I]n Uncle Sam we have a symbol of protecting, kindly authority, and in the many Mother-posts of the Red Cross, we see how easily . . . the ruling organization is conceived in family terms.  [People become] obedient, respectful, trustful children again, full of that naïve faith in the all-wisdom and all-power of the adult who takes care of them, imposes his mild but necessary rule upon them and in whom they lose their responsibility and anxieties.  In this recrudescence of the child, there is great comfort.”

“On most people the strain of being an independent adult weights heavily.”  The State provides a way of eliminating “the psychic burden of adulthood.”

— Randolph Bourne, writing about the effects of the national emergency of war on the population in his famous 1918 essay, “War is the Health of the State.”

This is a must-read:  "COVID-19: Further Evidence That the Virus Originated in the U.S.," Larry Romanoff, March 14, 2020.  

TO ALL OF MY INTELLIGENT, "STAYIN' ALIVE" FRIENDS OF 60 & OLDER, KEEP YOUR HEALTH: TAKE 10,000 IU OF VITAMIN D/DAY

Kids, in school, say pretty mean things. Unholy schools create little monsters.  Viciousness is already prevalent.  The Coronavirus gives mean people license.  Robert Wenzel found one example of this: 

I have been informed by a relative who is a middle school teacher that students are now referring to coronavirus as the “boomer remover”

— B. W. Carlin (@BaileyCarlin) March 12, 2020

Then there was this. So it does look like us lived-long and lived-well folks need to be upping our vitamin D levels. 

Italian National Health Institute data from 12/3 show mortality among confirmed cases thus:

age 0-29: 0%
30-49: 0.1%
50-59: 0.6%
60-69: 2.7%
70-79: 9.6%
80-89: 16.6%
90+: 19%

88% of the deceased are age 70+.
Confirmed infections have a median age of 64 and are 60% male.

— Marcus Walker (@MMQWalker) March 13, 2020

But who's going to listen to this advice when they're not even sure of any benefits with vitamin D? But think about it. The folks who've gotten sick with the flu I mean Coronavirus have been folks on cruises 70-year-olds and folks in convalescent and nursing homes, octogenarians.  But how much vitamin D should one be taking?  Well, if the audience for this topic is mainly boomers, ages 60 to 75, more than likely your stomach acid production is down and you're not absorbing as many nutrients as you should or as you need.  Given this condition then, it makes sense to up the dose from what you might usually find inside a standard multivitamin formula.  Well, the best authorities to rely on with this subject would be Bill Sardi or John Cannell or Martie Whittikins.  Let me start with Sardi, who claims first that 600mgs. is too low.  And this is the recommended dose for healthy folks.  But what if you've got underlying conditions, like diabetes or obesity or chronic disease?  From the start of this article, Sardi focuses our attention on where Americans stand with regard to vitamin D consumption and supplementation. 

a revealing study showing diabetics, in particular, are at 4.5-times greater risk for an early death when their blood levels of vitamin D are low.  The risk of death from infectious disease also doubles for individuals who are deficient in vitamin D. 

Unfortunately, too many people take health and life for granted.  Fine.  I prefer survival.  So what amount does someone need to one, keep healthy, and two, survive?  

an estimated 42% of Americans are vitamin D deficient when defined as a blood concentration below 20 nanograms/milliliter/ 50 nanomoles/liter of blood.

A different analysis shows 9600 units of vitamin D from dietary supplements is needed to ensure 97.5% of the population achieves a blood level of 40 nanograms/100 nanomoles.  The answer? 

You need 10,000IU of vitamin D.  Sardi points out that 5,000 is insufficient.  

It takes about 5000 IU (international units) of oral vitamin D3 for most people to achieve a blood concentration of 50+ nanomoles or 20 nanograms. 

So 10,000IU should be your daily dose.  But what if you come down with a severe case of the flu, the cold, bronchitis, or, God forbid, the Coronavirus? Then you'll need to up your dose to 50,000IU for the length of the illness, maybe even a week following the resolution of your illness in case you have a residual and intractable symptom like a cough or phlegm build-up.  Then you can go back to maintenance levels of 10,000IU per day.

If you are above the 37th Parallel, you need to supplement with vitamin D.  Take 10,000IUs of vitamin D. 

Dr. John Cannell, according to Wikipedia, "hypothesized that Vitamin D deficiencies may predispose to influenza."  Hello. This is worth a few minutes of your time: 

Citing Dr. John Cannell's work, Martie Whittekin reminds us that 

For years, the nonprofit Vitamin D Council has monitored the science and informed us that higher blood levels of D (50--100nmol/L) were of benefit for immune function, muscles, heart function, lungs, brain, depression, breast cancer protection and so on.  

VIRUSES ARE LIKE LITTLE GREASE-NANOPARTICLES. SOAP DISSOLVES THE FAT MEMBRANE AND THE VIRUS FALLS APART OR BECOMES INACTIVE.

Here is an elegant explanation of why the simple but important task of washing your hands is effective in destroying germs, viruses, and bacteria. The pharmaceutical industry will claim that washing is not enough, that you will need some limousine prescription to fight that cold.  The following is a Twitter thread by Palli Thordarson, professor, School of Chemistry UNSW.  Bob Wenzel highlighted key points of the thread in [bold]:

1/25 Part 1 - Why does soap work so well on the SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus and indeed most viruses? Because it is a self-assembled nanoparticle in which the weakest link is the lipid (fatty) bilayer. A two-part thread about soap, viruses and supramolecular chemistry #COVID19

2/25 The soap dissolves the fat membrane and the virus falls apart like a house of cards and "dies", or rather, we should say it becomes inactive as viruses aren’t really alive. Viruses can be active outside the body for hours, even days.

3/25 Disinfectants or liquids, wipes, gels and creams containing alcohol (and soap) have similar effects but are not really quite as good as normal soap. Apart from the alcohol and soap, the “antibacterial agents” in these products don't affect the virus structure much at all.

4/25 Consequently, many antibacterial products are basically just an expensive version of soap in terms of how they act on viruses. Soap is the best but alcohol wipes are good when soap is not practical or handy (e.g. office receptions).

5/25 But why exactly is soap so good? To explain that, I will take you through a bit of a journey through supramolecular #chemistry, nanoscience, and virology. I try to explain this in generic terms as much as possible, which means leaving some specialist chemistry terms out.

6/25 I point out to that while I am expert in supramolecular chemistry and the assembly of nanoparticles, I am not a virologist. The image with the first tweet is from an excellent post here which is dense with good virology info:

7/25 I have always been fascinated by viruses as I see them as one of the most spectacular examples of how supramolecular chemistry and nanoscience can converge. Most viruses consist of three key building blocks: RNA, proteins, and lipids.

8/25 The RNA is the viral genetic material -it is very similar to DNA. The proteins have several roles including breaking into the target cell, assist with virus replication and basically to be a key building block (like a brick in a house) in the whole virus structure.

9/25 The lipids then form a coat around the virus, both for protection and to assist with its spread and cellular invasion. The RNA, proteins, and lipids self-assemble to form the virus. Critically, there are no strong “covalent” bonds holding these units together.

10/25 Instead the viral self-assembly is based on weak “non-covalent” interactions between the proteins, RNA, and lipids. Together these act together like a Velcro so it is very hard to break up the self-assembled viral particle. Still, we can do it (e.g. with soap!).

11/25 Most viruses, including the coronavirus, are between 50-200 nanometers – so they are truly nanoparticles. Nanoparticles have complex interactions with surfaces they are on. Same with viruses. Skin, steel, timber, fabric, paint, and porcelain are very different surfaces.

12/25 When a virus invades a cell, the RNA “hijacks” the cellular machinery like a computer virus (!) and forces the cell to start to makes a lot of fresh copies of its own RNA and the various proteins that make up the virus.

13/25 These new RNA and protein molecules, self-assemble with lipids (usually readily present in the cell) to form new copies of the virus. That is, the virus does not photocopy itself, it makes copies of the building blocks which then self-assemble into new viruses!

14/25 All those new viruses eventually overwhelm the cell and it dies/explodes releasing viruses which then go on to infect more cells. In the lungs, some of these viruses end up in the airways and the mucous membranes surrounding these.

15/25 When you cough, or especially when you sneeze, tiny droplets from the airways can fly up to 10 meters (30 ft)! The larger ones are thought to be main coronavirus carriers and they can go at least 2 m (7 ft). Thus – cover your coughs & sneezes people!

16/25 These tiny droplets end on surfaces and often dry out quickly. But the viruses are still active! What happens next is all about supramolecular chemistry and how self-assembled nanoparticles (like the viruses) interact with their environment!

17/25 Now it is time to introduce a powerful supramolecular chemistry concept that effectively says: similar molecules appear to interact more strongly with each other than dissimilar ones. Wood, fabric and not to mention skin interact fairly strongly with viruses.

18/25 Contrast this with steel, porcelain, and at least some plastics, e.g. Teflon. The surface structure also matters–the flatter the surface the less the virus will “stick” to the surface. Rougher surfaces can actually pull the virus apart.

19/25 So why are surfaces different? The virus is held together by a combination of hydrogen bonds (like those in water) and what we call hydrophilic or “fat-like” interactions. The surface of fibers or wood, for instance, can form a lot of hydrogen bonds with the virus.

20/25 In contrast steel, porcelain or Teflon do not form a lot of hydrogen bonds with the virus. So the virus is not strongly bound to these surfaces. The virus is quite stable on these surfaces whereas it doesn’t stay active for as long on say fabric or wood.

21/25 For how long does the virus stay active? It depends. The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is thought to stay active on favorable surfaces for hours, possibly a day. Moisture (“dissolves”), sunlight (UV light) and heat (molecular motions) all make the virus less stable.

22/25 The skin is an ideal surface for a virus! It is “organic” and the proteins and fatty acids in the dead cells on the surface interact with the virus through both hydrogen bonds and the “fat-like” hydrophilic interactions.

23/25 So when you touch, say, a steel surface with a virus particle on it, it will stick to your skin and hence get transferred onto your hands. But you are not (yet) infected. If you touch your face though, the virus can get transferred from your hands and on to your face.

24/25 And now the virus is dangerously close to the airways and the mucus type membranes in and around your mouth and eyes. So the virus can get in…and voila! You are infected (that is unless your immune system kills the virus).

25/25 If the virus is on your hands you can pass it on by shaking someone’s else hand. Kisses, well, that's pretty obvious…It comes without saying that if someone sneezes right in your face you are kind of stuffed. Part 2 about soap coming next (25 post limit reached)!

26/39 Part 2 about soap, supramolecular chemistry, and viruses. 

So how often do you touch your face? It turns out most people touch the face once every 2-5 minutes! Yeah, so you at high risk once the virus gets on your hands unless you can wash the active virus off.

27/39 So let’s try washing it off with plain water. It might just work. But water “only” competes with the strong “glue-like” interactions between the skin and virus via hydrogen bonds. The virus is quite sticky and may not budge. Water isn’t enough.

28/39 Soapy water is totally different.  Soap contains fat-like substances knowns as amphiphiles, some structurally very similar to the lipids in the virus membrane. The soap molecules “compete” with the lipids in the virus membrane. 

29/39 The soap molecules also compete with a lot of other non-covalent bonds that help the proteins, RNA and the lipids to stick together. The soap is effectively “dissolving” the glue that holds the virus together. Add to that all the water.

30/39 The soap also outcompetes the interactions between the virus and the skin surface. Soon the viruses get detached and fall apart like a house of cards due to the combined action of the soap and water. The virus is gone!

31/39 The skin is quite rough and wrinkly which is why you do need a fair amount of rubbing and soaking to ensure the soap reaches every crook and nanny on the skin surface that could be hiding active viruses.

32/39 Alcohol-based products, which pretty includes all “disinfectants” and “antibacterial” products contain a high-% alcohol solution, typically 60-80% ethanol, sometimes with a bit of isopropanol as well and then water + a bit of soap.

33/39 Ethanol and other alcohols do not only readily form hydrogen bonds with the virus material but as a solvent, are more lipophilic than water. Hence, alcohol does also dissolve the lipid membrane and disrupt other supramolecular interactions in the virus.

34/39 However, you need a fairly high concentration (maybe +60%) of the alcohol to get a rapid dissolution of the virus. Vodka or whiskey (usually 40% ethanol), will not dissolve the virus as quickly. Overall alcohol is not quite as good as soap at this task.

35/39 Nearly all antibacterial products contain alcohol and some soap and this does help killing viruses. But some also include “active” bacterial killing agents, like triclosan. Those, however, do basically nothing to the virus!

36/39 To sum up, viruses are almost like little grease-nanoparticles. They can stay active for many hours on surfaces and then get picked up by touch. They then get to our face and infect us because most of us touch the face quite frequently.

37/39 Water is not very effective alone in washing the virus off our hands. Alcohol-based products work better. But nothing beats soap – the virus detaches from the skin and falls apart very readily in soapy water.

38/39 Here you have it–supramolecular chemistry and nanoscience tell us not only a lot about how the virus self-assembled into a functional active menace but also how we can beat viruses with something as simple as soap.

39/39 Thank you for reading my first thread. Apologies for any mistakes in the above. I might have some virology details wrong here as I am not a virologist unlike @MackayIM who I am a big fan of! But I hope this inspires you not only to use soap but to read up on chemistry!