Handwashing is more important than ever in our global fight against Covid-19, especially as we practise 'social distancing', but may still have to go to the supermarket to buy 'basic necessities'. There have been many, many videos and articles published on social media about washing hands - here are some that I hope will help remind children (and adults) about the importance of washing hands for 20 seconds with soap and water.

The science of soap is explained in this excellent (short) article by Pall Thordarson. In short, soap dissolves the weakest link in the virus - the lipid (fatty) bilayer, making it inactive.

Many teachers have been using a simple experiment with soap and pepper to show how important it is to wash your hands with soap. However, the simple, but clever video shown at the bottom of this post demonstrates brilliantly how important it is to wash the whole of your hands.  

Google published a Doodle on 19th March to show how to follow the World Health Organisation's official guidelines, and in recognition of Ignaz Semmelweis' contribution to science with his introduction of hand disinfection standards.

An English 17 year old, William Gibson, has created a fab 'little site that generates hand washing instructions accompanied by lyrics from a song of your choice instantly'. 

This is great way to get your family to create their own personal handwashing song, if you haven't already done so! You can even create your own lyrics. Visit https://washyourlyrics.com/to have a go.

Finally, I had to include this very cute video of Zeke The Chameleon who reminds us all how to wash our hands.

Thank you to everyone who has shared videos and articles to remind us all that handwashing can help save lives.