Since the coronavirus pandemic outbreak, it has been business unusual. No industry knows that better than Airbnb. A company that sells shared houses, wrapped alongside tour and travel. The coronavirus outbreak has been an epic nuke bomb dropped on their businesses.
International commercial flights in most countries are still grounded. People are still being encouraged to work from home, not to make unnecessary travels outside their homes and home cities. You can see how the COVID-19 has a strong choke-hold on the lifeline of companies such as Airbnb.
UV Light to the Rescue
The medical science community believes ultraviolet light (UV) can kill the novel coronavirus. That assumption is based on the fact that UV light has proven to be lethal to all the previously known types of coronavirus. So there is a catch 22 there; there is little data to substantiate the effectiveness of UV light against the novel coronavirus.
If that ray of hope, assumption, was big enough for the current POTUS to suggest beaming patients with UV light. You can only imagine just how fast and far the business community can run with that idea. A section of the media seemed to create the perception POTUS also said people should ingest household bleach (chlorine) to kill coronavirus in their system.
Airbnb pushing for UVC Wands usage by its customers
For companies like Airbnb to remain in business, people in their masses need to stop being afraid of the novel coronavirus. Since UV light has all along been known to kill the previously known types of the coronavirus, Airbnb is capitalizing on that idea.
As part of its measures to do business in these unusual times. Airbnb has instigated several measures to prevent its customers from contracting and spreading the virus. Some of these measures include:
A 72-hour buffer between successive stays
Thorough disinfection of the premises once one customer leaves
Use of UVC wands to disinfect surfaces within the premises
UVA and UVB versus UVC
At this point, you may want to put on some geek’s glasses as we are about to get geeky-technical. So UV light comes in variations, but before we get into it. You probably know most people get flooded daily with this UV light; it is radiated daily from the Sun.
We cannot feel UV radiation, unlike infrared radiation from the Sun, which we can feel as warmth or heat on our skin. Neither can we see the UV radiation with our naked eyes as we see visible light from the Sun. Things get further interesting for UV light, as it comes in three variations:
UVA
UVB
UVC
While the Sun radiates all three variants of the UV light towards Earth. UVC gets blocked by the Earth’s Ozone layer, and most of UVB gets filtered out by the atmosphere. UVA also gets filtered to some extent, but of the three variants, it is what reaches the Earth’s surface most.
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK / SIBERIAN ART (Mashable.com)
Both UVA and UVB can damage most viruses, but the process is quite slow. However, UVC is especially disruptive to the virus’s DNA and RNA. This variant is what most people refer to when they say UV light can kill microscopic pathogens. However, we get almost none of it down here on the Earth’s surface.
The Innovation that is UVC Wands to fight off COVID-19
We do know UVC light is lethal to the previously known coronaviruses. Since the new coronavirus shares the same RNA structures, odds are high UVC light will obliterate that piece of shit. So a lot of companies have been creating artificial lighting emitting specifically the UVC light fashioned in the shape and size of a wand.
Airbnb together with other businesses affected by the coronavirus outbreak have been encouraging consumers to buy these wands. As it works out, the customers can disinfect their new Airbnb home acquisitions using the UVC wands. That will enable them to safely continue using Airbnb as they travel and tour various parts of the world for business and pleasure.
Caution: User Beware!
It is no coincidence that mother nature naturally blocks UVC radiation from reaching the Earth surface. What makes UVC good in fighting microscopic pathogens, also makes it dangerous to the human skin. As it works out, UVC damages the building blocks of the DNA and RNA in the virus. And guess what, if the UVC lights beams on your body it will do the exact same thing to cells on your skin and potentially inside your body.
In a nutshell, you could get skin cancer from UVC light exposure. Its negative effects can be quickly realized if you were unfortunate enough to stare directly to a UVC light source. It will be the last thing you ever see, as it damages the cells inside the eye; and does so quickly.
So be very careful while using the UVC light wands to disinfect surfaces in and around your home. It goes without saying, children should never be allowed to use these devices. They may just start to fence with it like they do in Star Wars.
