I heard on the radio, for what that is worth, [no, not FOX news] that the virus lives the shortest on paper, cardboard & wood, in that order.
My daughter's in-laws came back from India and I asked them if they had any coins. The reply was "Oh, you don't want those nasty coins" and then they gave me some well-circulated paper money...
After going through junk coin bins for a couple of hours, my hands are usually about as dirty as a coal miner.
Sorry, but I'm literal about this. The bottles I've seen say nothing about killing viruses, only bacteria, which is why I brought it up. Ant then you said viruses aren't bacteria, so you see where I'm going with this?
Sure. It's critically important to be clear about things like this. There are antibacterial SOAPS that have added ingredients to kill bacteria. Those added ingredients don't do any good against viruses, and may be bad anyhow, because bacteria can develop resistance to them. But soap itself destroys viruses, as does alcohol. Washing with soap damages viruses and carries them away.
And us, too, if we get enough of it. A couple of points, though: Sunlight doesn't kill bacteria and viruses very quickly, because nearly all of the "germicidal" UV-C gets blocked by the atmosphere, and other kinds of UV are greatly reduced. Sunlight doesn't kill bacteria and viruses in shadow. If you put a book in the sun, the top cover will get exposed nicely, but not the pages inside. And the same goes for the human body, of course. Sunlight on your skin does help you make Vitamin D, which is good, but it's not going to affect viruses or bacteria that are already inside you.
The reason you hear "wash you hands" is that the Covid Coronavirus has an outer lipid (oil/fat based) shell. This oil based shell does not like detergents that break down the fat/oil .. like soaps, dish soaps, and hand sanitizers (60% alcohol and more). Covid-19 is basically a nano sized grease ball .. ever seen those Dawn dish soap commercials ? The ingredient you are looking for in a soap is "sodium laureth sulfate" which is a chemical based sulfate. Soaps may have many other types such as: Sodium Tallowate, Sodium Palmate, Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Palm Kernelate. by using a soap your destroy the Covid-19 by ripping apart the lipid, and then it's soluable in water and disintegrates. But of course, the trick is it takes a little time .. thus the 20 seconds rule you hear. Alcohol is similar to an amphiphile (sulfate soap) but you need a higher concentration of alcohol - 60%+ and it's a bit harsher on the skin to accomplish the same thing.
That's one of the things I enjoy so much about Coin talk. Not only are people here very knowledgeable about coins but also science.
our local Henry Ford hospital has started using UVC machines to kill the Covid virus. https://www.clickondetroit.com/heal...-develop-protocol-to-sterilize-certain-masks/ UVA and UVB which is what is common in sunlight apparently do not destroy it. UVC is filtered by our ozone, otherwise we'd all be dead (From what I've read)