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When covid first hit I was smug because while everybody was freaking out buying up all the hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes I remembered the section college biochemistry about surfactants and bought a few extra bottles of soap. Sodium Laureth Sulfate et al. are super cool underrated substances imo


There are viruses which are immune to soap, because they don't have a lipid envelope. A common one is Norovirus.


Thankfully it turned out not to cling to surfaces (unfortunately it turns out it was airborne instead) like rhinovirus, so the surface cleaning proved unnecessary.




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