I've learned since then that bacterial infections are actually parasites, and antibiotics are actually metal to temporarily stun and kill the life cycles of them.

Time for a deep dive into the history of silver and it's well known mechanisms for... stunning and killing bacteria and viruses. It's been used for centuries to purify water, keep milk from going bad at room temp, and was widely used by militaries in WWI in silver laced bandages to prevent infections.

Very high end swimming pool filtration systems use silver to purify the water and have pure, clean water with no chemicals or salts. They can be damn hard to find though, exclusive tech for the elite.

Silver isn't patentable though.