Dean of the SUSU Faculty of Chemistry Explained the Importance of Coronavirus Prevention

Everyone knows the coronavirus preventive measures and yet tend to regularly forget about their importance. Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry Vyacheslav Avdin explained, in terms of chemistry, what the coronavirus is and why a mask and an antiseptic can really help to protect oneself from it.

In 2020, the compliance with the coronavirus preventive measures has turned into a daily routine. However, not everyone is following the recommendations, even despite the prescribed mask regime. Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry of the SUSU Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Doctor of Sciences (Chemistry) Vyacheslav Avdin thinks, that the reason lies in the lack of understanding of the essence of the spread of coronavirus.

“I often hear, including from the learned men: “The size of the virus is thousand times smaller than the size of the pores in the mask! The mask cannot protect us!” The virus is a nanoparticle with uncompensated surface energy. This particle does not exist in the air by itself, it needs to stick to something. For example, to the droplets of water vapour. And these droplets have a size comparable to the size of the pores in the mask, and even larger. Water vapour is released when talking and, at the same time, the viruses are also released from the carrier. The probability of their transmission decreases if both the carrier of the virus and the healthy person follow the preventive measures,” said Vyacheslav Avdin.

Medical mask

Single-use medical masks, which are sold in any pharmacy, and reusable cloth masks are the best ways for protecting oneself from the coronavirus infection. Masks keep air vapours and saliva in that fly out when talking, which means it prevents the virus that has adhered to these droplets from spreading.

According to Vyacheslav Avdin, masks cannot contain all the molecules of the virus, but it can significantly reduce their spread. At the same time, it depends on the number of the viruses, whether a person will catch a disease and how severe the disease will be. So, people who do not neglect wearing masks can more easily transfer coronavirus infection or avoid it altogether.

Still, it is important to wear a mask properly: not to remove it in the crowded places, regularly change single-use samples and wash the reusable ones. Also, reusable masks need to be treated with an antiseptic for better virus protection.

Gloves

In the Chelyabinsk region, the mask and glove regime has not been introduced, only limited to the mask wearing. Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry states that it is a reasonable decision: the “concentration” of people in Chelyabinsk is smaller than in Moscow, which means that the number of carriers of viruses is also small. Besides, the virus hardly enters the body through intact skin. If you regularly and thoroughly wash your hands after contact with handles, buttons, handrails and other surfaces, then the virus will not remain on them.

“It is important to remember that the virus can “live” long on flat surfaces, such as metal, glass, plastic. The reason is that air oxygen, which is the main oxidant of the virus, is poorly adsorbed on such a surface. That is why you need to wash your hands after contact with any surfaces,” noted Vyacheslav Avdin.

“Soap does not kill the virus but only washes it away,” he added.

Antiseptics

Antiseptics effectively fight the molecules of the virus. But only antiviral antiseptic gels and sprays are able to kill the virus, antimicrobial agents will not cope with it. So, when buying, you need to choose antiseptics on the basis of alcohol or other compounds that destroy the natural molecule.


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Daria Tsymbaliuk, photo: Danil Rakhimov
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Daria Tsymbaliuk, tel.: 272-32-78
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