Quick and easy recipes recommended by the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control can provide protection against the COVID-19 virus

Erika Burkhalter

Mar 12, 2020·5 min read

I recently returned from a trip to the Dominican Republic. A few weeks before we departed, when the COVID-19 virus had not yet arrived on American shores, I ordered hand-sanitizer and disinfectant wipes from Amazon, and used them (along with frequent hand-washings, which the CDC recommends as the most effective way to prevent transmission) to protect myself while traveling.

Making hand sanitizer is not rocket science. You can easily make both hand sanitizer and surface disinfectant cleansers yourself.

While I was away, the spread of the virus ramped up. My return flight was full of people wearing masks and wiping down their seating areas, trays and overhead buttons with disinfectant wipes.

The CDC has warned that the virus can linger on solid surfaces for “hours to days.” Since we can’t always control which surfaces we come into contact with, the best protection is to be vigilant about keeping your hands clean and to avoid touching your face.

How to Properly Wash Your Hands

The CDC recommends these steps for properly washing your hands:

Follow these five steps every time.

1. Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap.
2. Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
3. Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice.
4. Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
5. Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them.

Hand Sanitizer

When you can’t wash your hands right away, hand sanitizer is useful. The CDC recommends making sure that you use a product containing at least 60% alcohol. Also, make sure you use at least 3 milliliters of product and rub your hands together for 25–30 seconds.

Procuring hand sanitizer right now is not so easy. The store shelves which used to bear rows of Clorox Bleach wipes and little bottles of Purell are starkly bare. Amazon displays an “unavailable” warning under most of these products. Until production ramps up to meet demand, there will be a deficit in supplies.

But making hand sanitizer is not rocket science. You can easily make both hand sanitizer and surface disinfectant cleansers yourself. The World Health Organization has issued two recommended formulations. The first of these contains aloe vera gel and is a little easier to make, and a lot kinder to your skin.

Aloe Vera Gel Based Sanitizer

(Both of these recipes are WHO formulations scaled down to a more manageable size by Popular Science Magazine)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of 91% isopropyl alcohol
• ½ cup of aloe vera gel (natural or store-bought)
• 15 drops of tea tree oil (or another antibacterial essential oil)

Recipe:

1. Pour the alcohol into a medium container with a pouring spout.
2. Measure and pour the aloe vera gel. Alcohol can be hard on your skin, so using aloe is a good way to counteract that effect and keep your hands smooth. If you want to keep things natural, you can use aloe vera gel straight from the plant without worrying about it going bad — the alcohol will act as a preservative. However, you will need to keep in mind that natural aloe gel is thicker than its store-bought counterpart and will thus affect the final product differently — it will make your hand sanitizer more sticky, which means you’ll need to rub your hands more times for it to fully absorb.
3. Add the essential oil. Tea tree oil is naturally antibacterial, so it makes sense to use it here. But if you’re not a fan of its smell, you can use another type of essential oil, like lavender, lemongrass, or eucalyptus.
4. Whisk. To fully mix all ingredients, stirring won’t be enough. Get a whisk and beat that hand sanitizer into an homogeneous gel.
5. Sanitize your spray bottles and pour in your hand sanitizer. Spray some of your leftover alcohol into your bottles and let them sit until the alcohol has evaporated. Pour in your sanitizer.
6. Label your containers. You don’t want any accidents where you or anybody else ingests your newly made hand sanitizer. Take the time to label your bottles. Continue living.

Alcohol and Hydrogen Peroxide Based Formula

The trouble with using this second formula exactly as it is written is that you will end up with A LOT of it — 2.6 gallons to be precise. So, Popular Science magazine has re-scaled the formulation as follows:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of 99% isopropyl alcohol
• 1 tablespoon of 3% hydrogen peroxide
• 1 teaspoon of 98% glycerin
• ¼ cup, 1 tablespoon, and 1 teaspoon (or 85 milliliters) of sterile distilled or boiled cold water

Recipe:

1. Pour the alcohol into a medium-sized container with a pouring spout. The percentages on the labels of isopropyl alcohol refer to the alcohol concentration in them. You’re dealing with almost pure alcohol if you’ve got 99.8%, whereas 70% means the bottle is only a little more than two-thirds alcohol, and the rest is water.
2. Add the hydrogen peroxide.
3. Add the glycerin and stir. This ingredient is thicker than both alcohol and hydrogen peroxide, so it’ll take some stirring to combine everything. You can use a clean spoon for this or, if your container has a lid, you can put that on and shake it well.
4. Measure and pour in the water. If you’re using 99% isopropyl alcohol, you’ll need to measure ¼ of a cup, 1 tablespoon, and 1 teaspoon of distilled or boiled cold water and add it all to your mix. If you’re using another percentage of isopropyl alcohol, just pour as much water as necessary to get to a final volume of 345 milliliters, or approximately 1.4 cups. Stir.
5. Sanitize your spray bottles and pour in your hand sanitizer. Spray some of your leftover alcohol into your bottles and let them sit until the alcohol has evaporated. Pour in your sanitizer.
6. Label your bottles. You don’t want any accidents where you or anybody else ingests your newly made hand sanitizer. Take the time to label your bottles. Go kill some germs.

Surface Disinfectant

As for surface disinfectants, in its guidance for COVID-19, the CDC advises using a bleach solution with 5 tablespoons (1/3 cup) bleach per gallon of water, or 4 teaspoons bleach per quart of water, and following manufacturer’s instructions for application and ventilation.

Conclusion

In times of crisis, it is so easy to panic, especially when the supplies you need to protect yourself are in high demand and hard to find. Having the tools to make these products yourself puts a little control back into your own hands.

And having control reduces stress levels. It is a challenging time right now, but remember to stop, take a few deep breaths, and just be vigilant about washing your hands.

Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies). Erika is also an editor for Dharma Talk.