The economics of putting germicidal light in every room, with Misha Gurevich and Vivian Belenky of Aerolamp

In this episode, Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Misha Gurevich, CEO of Aerolamp, and Vivian Belenky, its chief scientist and a researcher at Columbia, to discuss why UVC, a wavelength of light that inactivates airborne pathogens but is absorbed harmlessly by the dead outer layer of human skin, remains almost entirely undeployed. They explain the physics and safety case for 222 nanometers, the economics of installation, and preliminary South African trial results showing 90% suppression of tuberculosis transmission in hospital wards.  – Full transcript available here: https://www.complexsystemspodcast.com/the-economics-of-putting-germicidal-light-in-every-room/ – **Presenting Sponsors:** Mercury **&** MongoDB Complex Systems is presented by Mercury—radically better banking for founders. Mercury's new feature Command brings an LLM directly into your banking interface, so checking balances, finding invoices, or sending a wire is as easy as asking. Apply online in minutes at https://mercury.com/.  What's the point of building faster with AI if your database can't keep up? MongoDB's native data model mirrors the language LLMs already speak. Ship at the speed of AI while staying ACID compliant at Fortune 500 scale. Start building at https://mongodb.com/ai. – Links: - Aerolamp: https://aerolamp.net/ – Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:58) What far UVC does to pathogens (03:25) Why it's safe for skin and eyes (09:24) What a typical deployment looks like (11:21) Why isn't this everywhere already? (13:55) Where the rollout should be prioritized (17:31) The economics per room and per building (20:56) Lamp lifetime and maintenance (21:48) When does the evidence become undeniable? (23:24) Tuberculosis and long-term care as early proof points (27:16) Pandemic math and kneecapping the next outbreak (30:16) Sponsors: Mercury | MongoDB (32:49) R0, K-factor, and why the built environment beats opt-in (34:23) Building codes, ASHRAE 241, and competing technologies (39:11) The deployment curve and the awareness problem (42:33) Scaling manufacturing: krypton chloride versus LEDs (45:14) Price versus cost, and where the inflection point is (47:35) Should you put one in your house? (51:51) What would make this fail? (56:09) The hygiene hypothesis objection (01:01:13) The precautionary principle and reasoning under uncertainty (01:06:04) Where the first million dollars should go (01:10:49) The business case and the heckler's veto (01:14:51) Where to find Aerolamp (01:15:52) Wrap