BUG UNLEASHED
Former Nasa scientist Mark Rober uses ‘glow powder’ to show just how quickly germs spread amid coronavirus outbreak
A TERRIFYING video reveals how easily germs can spread on people and surfaces as a deadly coronavirus outbreak sweeps the globe.
Put together by former Nasa engineer Mark Rober, the clip visualises how touching objects and your face allows bacteria and viruses to stealthily spread between people.
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The 40-year-old did this by sprinkling a powder that can only be seen under a blacklight on the hands of a primary school teacher and one of her students.
Mark posted the to his YouTube channel last week in a bid to show how important it is to wash your hands regularly and avoid touching your face.
"I've always thought if we could somehow just see the germs around us, everyone would be a lot more careful and we'd get sick way less," he said.
It comes as the global death toll for COID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, hit 17,147 on Monday.
The UK has woken up to a lockdown this morning after Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared a "moment of national emergency" last night.
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People will only be allowed to leave their home for essential supplies, one form of daily exercise or a walk, medical care or "absolutely necessary" work.
For his video, Mark, who's based in San Francisco, California, employed a special powder called Glo Germ.
It cannot be seen on the skin but vividly glows when exposed to ultraviolet light.
Mark had a teacher apply the powder to her palms and shake the hands of three third-grade students.
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Another student slapped a handful of powder on their hands and went outside as normal during recess.
None of the other students in the class were aware of the experiment until Mark revealed the results.
He showed that, just a couple of hours after the two initial "infections", the classroom was covered with glow powder.
"Because my flashlight can only illuminate one sport at a time, I used Photoshop to better visualise our observations of where germs were left behind, including on the other kids," Mark explained.
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There was powder on the sink, telephone, paper towel holder, storage bins and wall, among other places in the classroom.
According to Mark, germs stay up to nine hours on surfaces like these.
And despite "pretty diligently" washing their hands, the powder was all over the students' faces and hands, Mark said.
Research shows we touch our faces up to 16 times an hour, allowing viruses and bacteria to quickly spread.
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Official UK government and NHS advice now states that people should wash their hands regularly and avoid touching their face to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
Mark's experiment also revealed how washing your hands for 20 seconds - the amount of time advised by the WHO - as opposed to eight seconds was much more effective at removing the glowing powder.
One child's “contaminated” handshake was shown to be passed on through seven other people.
But it was the possessions of "infected" people that produced the most shocking results.
"You can see how important it is to disinfect the things a sick person regularly touches," Mark said, citing the teacher's powder-covered smartphone as an example.
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"Even if you wash your hands really often, if you immediately pull out your phone, a lot of those germs just go right back on your hands."
He added that you can wipe your phone with disinfectant wipes for up to a year before damaging the screen.
"Cleaning commonly touched surfaces is important because even if a virus is spread through airborne transmission, those tiny droplets don't stay in the air for long. Then they land on surfaces, waiting to be touched by our hands," Mark explained.
"The ultimate defense against catching a virus is just don't touch your face," he added.
"Your eyes, nose, and mouth are like the single weak spot on the Death Star when it comes to viruses. That's the only way they can get it to infect you."
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