Tucked away in the corner of his office, Dr. Richard Saint Syr has created a little treatment station. On the bottom shelf of his bookcase, hidden behind one of his pictures, is an ultraviolet light the size of his forearm, two N95 masks and some goggles.
The light he bought from Amazon a few days back after he was hit with a realization. UV lights are used in hospitals to clean rooms and kill off germs, in HVAC systems to squash mold, in aquariums to fight off bacteria and parasites — why not enlist light in the fight against the coronavirus?
As stocks of personal protective gear like the N95 masks that health care workers wear as they treat sick patients dwindle, Saint Syr, a family doctor at Swedish Medical Group’s Bainbridge Island Primary Care facility, has taken to practicing the UV technique and preaching it to his colleagues.