Why Do You See No Soap-Resistant Epidemic Out There?

If a vaccine-resistant pandemic or a disinfectant-resistant epidemic is a thing, why do you see NO soap-resistant epidemic out there? In fact, doctors and medical organisations are constantly advising us to switch to using soap and water rather than alcohol based anti-bacterial or anti-viral disinfectants. They advise us so because of the fear of disinfectant-resistant strains of disease-causing germs. In addition to this fact, we know very well from the different strains of COVID-19 that pandemic causing germs have the capability to develop resistance to even the best vaccines we have. If these facts are true, what makes soap so special? Why are there no soap resistant germs out there? I hope these questions intrigue you as much as they intrigue me. If you’re on board, let’s find out what’s going on here.

This essay is supported by Generatebg

Bacterial Resistance to Antibiotics

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a long-known problem. Some of humanity’s latest findings suggest that the same phenomena behind bacterial resistance to antibiotics may also be behind the problem of microbes developing resistance to disinfectants. And it doesn’t stop with disinfectants; antiseptics and preservatives are some of the other classes of biological technology that are also affected by this problem.

Have you heard of humans or animals developing poison resistance through exposure to smaller (non-lethal) doses of the said poison (for reference, see: Mithridatism)? Something similar goes on here. The advantage that microbes have is that they reproduce rapidly (several generations over just days). By this process, if several generations of microbes are exposed to the same concentration levels of disinfectant, evolutionary adaptation takes place. Microbes have been observed to develop gene-level resistance to disinfectants to the point that they may be able to thrive in environments where their predecessors did not survive (literally just days ago). This is the reason why doctors and medical organisations issue caution with the usage of disinfectants.

That’s all fine. However, this knowledge doesn’t directly answer our main questions yet. So, let’s take a turn towards answering them directly.

Is It True That Soap comes with ‘no strings attached’?

The short and succinct answer to that question is a ‘yes’. It is indeed true that soap comes with the ‘no strings attached’ condition. Microbes do not develop resistance to soap because soap fundamentally works in a different manner in comparison to disinfectants or vaccines.

The Farmer’s Analogy

A farmer once complained that the weeds in his field developed resistance to his weedicide sprays. He was faced with the challenge that if he increased weedicide concentrations further, it could affect the health of his crops, and the health of his consumers as well. On the other hand, there was no assurance that the weeds would not develop further resistance to the eventual higher weedicide concentration levels. He solved the problem with the following explanation: “The weeds might become resistance to my weedicides, but weeds will never develop resistance to metal.”

What he means here is that if he cuts the weeds off with a knife (or a plough), they will not suddenly develop arms and legs to fight his physical attack. Wait a second? Is this how soap works? Does soap physically cut and shred the microbes? In layman’s terms: Yes!

Here’s how soap works

Soap works by reducing the surface tension of water molecules. Now, what is surface tension? It is the force that makes water molecules stick to each other so tightly, that even oil cannot separate them. This is why when you wash your hands using soap and water, all the dirt on your hand gets washed off with the soap itself. Because soap reduces the surface tension of water to such an extent that it can actually separate water into two different kinds of layers – one layer contains very tightly bonded water molecules while the other layer contains much less bonded water molecules called ‘diluted water’. This means that all the dirt stuck on your skin (the oily part) will be washed off with this diluted water layer. Thus, our hands become clean!

To simplify further, one part of soap attaches itself to water, the other part attaches itself to oils and impurities, and when water is further added to this combination, it rips apart whatever the soap (with its two parts) is holding onto. So, microbes are literally cut and shredded in the process.

There you have it; this is the reason why you see no soap resistant epidemic out there. In soap and water, we trust!

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Further reading that might interest you: Your Health is Your Biggest Investment and 5 Underrated Immunity Boosters.