How the coronavirus hitches a ride around your life

Like millions of others right now, we on the Verge Science video team are hunkered down in our homes to help slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. This presents some obvious difficulties for video production: what do you film when you can’t leave the house? Tricky as it is, we’re committed to getting scrappy with our circumstances. So I whipped up a small demonstration that doesn’t require a studio or co-workers.

Step one: get a powder called Glo Germ, which sticks to hands, faces, and other surfaces and also glows under ultraviolet light. This will be my stand-in for virus particles. Step two: put some powder on my hands, and go about my normal business in my apartment. Step three: retrace my steps and see just how far and wide my faux-contamination has spread.

Check out the video above to see the results and learn more about the science behind all of those public health recommendations regarding handwashing and surface-cleaning. And follow along with The Verge’s guide to the COVID-19 pandemic for our latest reporting.