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Comment by bb123 | Hacker News Reader

Good ventilation is easy to do in the summer months, but it is winter in the northern hemisphere at the moment, and fuel prices are at all time highs. That means adequate ventilation is likely an expensive thing to achieve. Not to mention the environmental consequences of extra energy consumption, along with the plastic pollution from littered masks and lateral flow tests - they’re absolutely everywhere.

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I'm sorry but this is unacceptable.

We have shut down entire industries, made some people 2nd class citizens, and wrote blank checks to healthcare companies to solve this problem,

and your concern is lost heat and the environment ?

Any common sense government would have mandated open windows a long time ago, in most transportation systems and in federal buildings that could bear it, instead we wasted valuable time with politics

I’m not sure what there is to accept? I never said it wasn’t worth it, just that there are financial and environmental costs to consider. Where I live heating a building is expensive and many people can not afford to do it adequately at the best of times.

No, you shut down entire industries not because of poor vents in a concert, but because some overly powerful, yet replaceable and hysterical bureaucrats decided to cover their asses (from being eaten by the exact same bureaucrats) with arbitrary loud and visible policies that had little correlation with actually solving any problems.

Notice similarity between places like Florida (less power-hungry governments + freedom-loving population) and places like Belarus and Russia (more authoritarian central gov that does not fear for losing its seat in the next election): both were shutting down things to a much lesser degree than everyone else. I think the reason is exactly the combo of "I can have arbitrary power as long as I have good PR" in the average democratic political environment.

What's the end-game there? Opening windows doesn't eradicate the virus. Admittedly, we don't have a clear end-game as things stand, but what you suggest is just another mitigation factor, not a solution.

The end game is that we get to all enjoy some fresh air, isn't that enough? I've been doing this for years, long before any covid.

Where do you live?

Seattle. Before then, New York.

Well if we can eventually drop the masks. Otherwise the air is still hot, humid and stale. I personally have anxieties due to them (related to an almost-suffocating experience in the past). But I know many people suffer with them for different reasons.

I know we need the masks now but it shouldn't be a permanent solution. It's very invasive. For 30m on the metro perhaps but not all day at work, school... If covid isn't doing away there must be a better way to reduce levels enough. After all it's only a mitigating measure, not a 100% preventative one.

I air my house every day too. Because I love the fresh air.

I hope that in the mean time we'll get powered masks though that don't have all these drawbacks. Especially for people like me with medical issues. Razer has one already but it's impossible to get (I've tried getting one on the last drops and they sell out before my order page loads) and it looks too much like a massive gas mask IMO. It's not suitable for a lot of situations. Still, I'd get one if I could :'(

Why wouldn't we want to maximize mitigation? Especially something so simple and eady to do?

It seems we put ALL our "money" on a vax and that isn't panning out well. So now we have lost time, nudged behavior in conflicting directions, and so on. We just keep doubling down on a mindset that is clearly flawed.

Common sense would have also dictacted we were more prepared - after a warning pandemic less than 10 yrs ago - we were not. The idea of a pandemic is so cliche that Hollywood has made multiple bad movies about one. But we weren't prepared (e.g., masks and PPE)?

Common sense (in the USA) would have dictated the extended care facilities were better protected early on, yet they were not.

There have been so many gaffes and bumbles that it consistently boils down to: it's either negligence or it's intentional. Neither is a good answer.

Any common sense organization would be strongly suggesting that people wear N95 masks with vents (more comfortable) to protect themselves. But here we are - still wearing whatever we can find around the house.

heat recovery ventilators are a thing, but not nearly as popular as they should be

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