As it becomes increasingly difficult to track down certain supplies over coronavirus fears, fear not—you can make hand sanitizer in the comfort of your own home. The basic ratio is 2/3 cup alcohol to 1/3 cup aloe vera gel, but from there, go wild with your home laboratory and experiment with consistencies and scent.

While the surgeon general has urged Americans to stop buying face masks and warned that masks can actually be harmful if used incorrectly, hand sanitizer use is recommended, especially if you don’t have access to a sink with water and soap after being out and about.

“Seriously people,” [Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams] began, and though it’s a tweet, you can almost hear the exasperation in his plea. “STOP BUYING MASKS!”

“They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!” he continued.

So masks shouldn’t be hoarded, and the most important preventative is to keep your hands clean (and don’t touch your face). The CDC recommends:

• Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom, before eating, and after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing.
• If soap and water are unavailable, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. Always wash hands with soap and water if hands are visibly dirty.

The CDC says that sanitizers should have 60% or more alcohol content, which you can check for on the back of a store-bought brand. But if you want to make your own to these specifications, you can follow the recipes below, which will produce a sanitizer with above 60% alcohol content. Most recipes use two main ingredients, isopropyl alcohol and aloe vera gel. You can also add an essential oil of your choice if you want your sanitizer to be scented.

Via OregonLive:

2/3 cup Isopropyl alcohol 91% (rubbing alcohol)
1/3 cup aloe vera gel
Essential oil in your choice of fragrance (optional)
A small or medium mixing bowl
A spoon
An empty container, such as a 3-ounce container from a travel toiletries kit
A small piece of masking tape for labeling

Mix the alcohol and aloe vera gel together until blended, add oil if you like, store in the plastic container, label, et voilà!

Helpful illustrations of the process can be found from our friends at WikiHow. They also suggest that in a pinch, you can use vodka in place of rubbing alcohol. This is fun, but also potentially practical if other supplies are all out near you. (The Verge points out that most vodkas, however, have an alcohol content around 40%. But it is possible to get a vodka with an ABV of 95% if you really want to, which could also be helpful to have around if the world is ending.)

2/3 cup 99% rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) or vodka
1/3 cup pure aloe vera gel (preferably without additives)
8 to 10 drops essential oil, such as lavender, clove, cinnamon, or peppermint
Mixing bowl
Spoon
Funnel
Plastic container

This is the same ratio we saw above, and WikiHow wants you to know how to best get the consistency you prefer:

• If you want the solution to be thicker, add another spoonful of aloe vera.
• Or thin it out by adding another spoonful of alcohol.

When it comes to essential oils, if you’re keen to add them, some can contribute additional benefits depending on their base. “Lavender, clove, cinnamon and peppermint essential oils have the added benefit of providing additional antiseptic properties to the mixture.”

Hand sanitizer is great and important to have around, but nothing beats regularly washing hands in terms of preventative measures against catching the coronavirus (and many other viruses). While social media has been having a field day over how many people are apparently just now realizing the importance of hand-washing, it’s quite possible even if you’re a frequent washer, you may not being doing it right.

As Syracuse.com points out, it’s crucial to wash for at least 20 seconds. Luckily, there’s a handy trick to measure out this length of time that kids will be able to keep in mind, too.

Believe it or not, there is a “correct” way to wash your hands, and chances are you’re not doing it (or doing it too fast). The rule of thumb is to scrub for 20 seconds, or about as long as it takes to sing “Happy Birthday,” twice.

If you have kids, making hand sanitizer together seems like it could be a cool project that distracts them from any misgivings they might be having around coronavirus rumors. Take action with science/cooking up a batch all your own. There’s really no need to pay the preposterously inflated prices for hand sanitizer that can now be found on the likes of eBay and Amazon. Bottles that were once $1.49 near me are going for $39.99. Why participate in the price gouging mania that’s going around when instead you could be vodka shopping?

What else did we see today?

• Facebook has robots patrolling its data centers, which I’m sure will never kill us all. (via Business Insider)
• Supernatural is bringing back Genevieve Padalecki and Danneel Ackles, IRL wives of the Winchesters, in some kind of funky take-your-spouse-to-work-day situation. (via EW.com)
• Apple is set to pay over $500 million to settle a lawsuit over slowing down older iPhones to compel us to buy new iPhones. Bad Apple. (via CNN)
• “Putin wants God and traditional marriage made law” hmm good thing Russia has nothing else more important to worry about. (via The BBC)
• This is a thing that happened, and since we had to see it, so do you. I’m sorry. I don’t make the Internet rules.
  

  fox news analyst brit hume likes sexy vixen vinyl (h/t .@BadFoxGraphics) pic.twitter.com/UbRM6ptfvC

  — Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) March 3, 2020

  What did you see out there today?

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