I'm obviously no expert but burning sage (smudging) has been scientifically proven to kill 94% of bacteria and viruses on contact.
After a room was smudged or rather fumed with sage smoke it remained pathogen free for a month.
I started selling sage last year. I have an entire flyer about how it kills 94% of airborne bacteria and viruses with links to scientific studies. There is actually a few entire schools dedicated to these studies on sage. I had no idea until I had already harvested a ton.
I originally just wanted to sell them as smudge sticks. Something my father and I would do (not a jw) and (native american) he would smudge me. lol
Then I started to look up sage and stumbled on the findings. I introduced it into my sales pitch to entice , say, for a hypothetical scenario that 'if there was a couple and one was looking at buying sage and the other was saying "why do you want to buy that ole stupid crap, to get rid of evil sprites or something?" , then the other could show the flyer with links to look up on the spot from science about what burning sage can do and is proven to do' then increase my chances of sales from that angle.
Anyway, I'm not trying to sell my sage here but if your at all interested you can just type in "the science of sage" in your search engine and you can find out more about it.
Personally I love the smell. I don't believe that it gets rid of evil spirits. I do find it fascinating that sage was used to wart off "evil spirits" yet really it kills 94% of airborne bacteria and viruses on contact. Maybe the natives and indigenous cultures in times past just felt better after using it or and it cleaned the whatever they where living in staffing off illness and it was associated with "cleansing" bad energy, evil, negative, ect.
I've been giving them out and just yesterday had some calls on it from some shops wanting to carry some. I have it in a couple stores at the moment.
I just thought I'd throw that info out there since its inexpensive and a little goes a long way. Look it up. Every little bit of help counts.
If your allergic to sage, use a mask while burning and act as if it a fogger and leave your house for couple hours. That is what I've heard some people doing that are allergic.