Dumbest question ever for science people

[Coronabored]

Please forgive my massive ignorance but I have been musing this over and wanted a science opinion.

If soap can kill the virus, can this not be injected somehow into the body to kill what is internal? (Yes I know how stupid I sound)

👀

I had this same thought about ethanol

I'm being serious. Gotta be something in it.

Soap works by washing it away!

Ah. Well, the short answer is that you'd die long before you built up enough soap in your body to kill the virus.

No. Because there are many beneficial lipid membranes on our own cells that would be destroyed.

Absolutely no science knowledge here.

But it doesn't kill the virus as such. The soap breaks it down, while you rub your hands together, the 20 second rule gives it the time to do this, and then when you rinse the soap off, it gets washed down the drain with the soap suds.

In a very topline way, soap kills it because it destroys the structure of the virus, not because its an antidote specially for Covid. it would will also destroy the structures of loads of cells in your body and kill you. It also only works in direct contact so you'd basically have to replace all the blood with soap.

Soap works because it dissolves the fat membrane and the virus becomes inactive. But you'd still have to inject an absolute fuckton of it, sorry.

@Spied well I drink a lot and I haven't had it yet

Scientist here! Soap disrupts the lipid envelope of the virus. Unfortunately the lipid envelope is taken by the virus from the host cell (I.e. the cells it infects in your lungs) and so the soap would kill your cells at the same rate as it kills the virus.

There are lots of ways to kill viruses out of the body: soap, bleach, heat, radiation, acid. All tend to be dangerous for a patient.

No, the soap is a mover rather than a killer IYSWIM. You wash off the muck and rinse it down the sink. Inside the body you need to assist the immune system to do the killing itself.

@ CountFosco
Wish I had known that sooner, I thought I'd found a way round the virus and have eaten eight bars of soap over the last five days. At least the toilet smells nice, and the WC bowl is really shiny.

There are lots of anti-virals we use against other viral infections that interfere with the viral lifecycle. They are getting less publicity than the search for a vaccine but we're going to be able to use a drug with a known safety record much much faster than a new vaccine that is only starting viral trials.

@WhoWouldHaveThoughtThat

Every cell in the body has a lipid membrane 😂

Well, there you go OP. Somebody agrees with you. Unfortunately it's Donald Trump.

His suggestion yesterday that Covid patients should be injected with disinfectant to kill the virus was absolute Trump gold.

Fire kills it too. If you completely incinerate yourself, that will definitely leave you completely virus free.

I was going to ask if your name was Donald, but someone got there first.

Just had a thought. Trump is a MNer and saw this thread thought, what a brilliant idea and decided he'd put it out there to the rest of the world.

Of course, the OP could actually be Donald Trump.

You want to inject a soapy liquid into someone’s bloodstream?

Ah, just seen I'm not the only one thinking that OP is Trump.

Interesting, does skin not have lipid membranes? Why is soap dangerous for coronaviruses and for human insides, but safe for human outsides?

Skin cells, the ones you can see, are largely dead, in simple terms therefore, soap won't do anything to them. Interesting fact, the grey dust you see on the underground is largely shed skin. Re Trump......didn't he even check with someone who knows before suggesting disinfectant......what am I saying, of course he didn't . Sorry, couldn't find the rolling eyes emoji.

Tremendous idea. Really great. We've got some tremendous ideas out there about soap and the future is great, really great. Anyone who says otherwise is talking fake news.