If I had my hands lathered up with soap...?

Question

and then touched something covered in bacteria, would it be able to get on my hands? Or would it completely and immediately wash off as soon as the lather on my hands was rinsed off?

Answer 1

Most of it would wash off since soap is composed of surfacants and the bacteria would be suspended in the surfacants. In a more difficult case, such as washing your hands and then handling something contaminated that is greasy, some bacteria would remain on your hands. Example: Chicken juice. You wash your hands and before you rinse handle some objects that have been in contact with contaminated chicken juice or grease fat from ground meat. The bacteria is in the grease fat and will stick to your hands.