There’s no cure or vaccine for COVID-19 yet, but restaurants are apparently willing to try anything to ease people’s concerns for the return — including installing newfangled lightbulbs that supposedly kill viruses without harming the human body. Crowd-favorite Magnolia Bakery
to welcome customers by adding new ultraviolet lights that reportedly kill off airborne virus particles,The bakery will begin installing the lights at its flagship Bleecker Street location in the West Village and at its Upper West Side outpost on Columbus Avenue, the only two Magnolia locations that are currently open for local pick-up and delivery orders.
Though these lights by no means guarantee protection from COVID-19, the bakery’s decision to install them stems fromthat’s been developed by Columbia University’s Center for Radiological Research. While the research team is still testing how effective it is in killing the strain of the virus that causes COVID-19, the research center’s head David Brenner says the results are “encouraging,” according to a news bulletin on the University’s website last month.
Conventional UV light is known for killing viruses, but it’s also harmful to humans. The technology developed at Columbia, however, involves a wavelength of UV light called far-UVC, which in low doses can kill viruses and bacteria without endangering humans, the university’s