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Comment by bugglebeetle | Hacker News Reader

Nah, widespread air filtration would cut down a number of infections, as would masking in healthcare settings. But to the parent’s point, these are not implemented because of lack of efficacy, but because they’re contrary to the (false) narrative of “Mission Accomplished.” If we reacted to water-borne illnesses in the way we’ve done to COVID, we’d have cholera everywhere and kids still being crippled by polio.

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Yes. I do not understand why we were apparently willing to create huge, lasting, economic and societal damage via lockdowns, but my kids school won’t pony up the few thousand for air filtration.

Cost vs benefit.

But air filtration is cheaper than lockdowns, and probably more effective because it can be kept in place permanently.

It also works on all respiratory virus’s, bushfire smoke, various other pollutants…

It isn't a silver bullet.

Neither is soap, do you wash your hands?

I was referring to the 'Swiss cheese' model, and GP argues that ventilation is a substitute for lockdowns, it isn't. But both are better than either and either is better than none.

Planes have pretty good air filtration systems yet people got sick in them, it's not like the air you breath out goes straight through a filter stack.

Laziness and general stupidity rules the day.

Cholera and Polio were much more severe illnesses than Covid and water is much easier to treat than air. I’m not sure where you’re getting the mission accomplished attitude but from what I can tell it’s simply an acknowledgement that the risks have reduced to an acceptable level, and the costs of doing anything much different are too high.

I'm continually surprised by the parallels between Polio and COVID and yet the common understanding puts them in two very separate categories.

> Polio is a viral infection that used to be common in the UK but is now rare.

> Most people who had polio would have fought off the infection without even realising they were infected.

> Some people with polio would have had paralysis, muscle weakness and shrinking of the muscles. But usually these problems would have either gone away over the following weeks or months, or remained the same for years afterwards.

> Post-polio syndrome is where some of these symptoms develop or get worse many years or decades after the original polio infection.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/post-polio-syndrome/

Polio is much more dangerous for small children, though. This could make quite a difference.

> Cholera and Polio were much more severe illnesses than Covid

> During 1951-1954, an average of 16,316 paralytic polio cases and 1879 deaths from polio were reported each year

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00056803.htm

> An estimated 1.3 to 4 million people around the world get cholera each year and 21,000 to 143,000 people die.

https://www.cdc.gov/cholera/general/index.html

> COVID-19 was associated with approximately 244,000 deaths in the United States during January–December 2022.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7218a4.htm

So no, not really.

> but because they’re contrary to the (false) narrative of “Mission Accomplished.”

I don't think you understand the cost of installing and maintaining that level of air filtration in every single public and office buildings on a world scale

I don’t think you understand the costs associated with contracting the labor force because of ongoing illness, disability, and deaths.

Short of mandatory hazmat suits you'd still get that, plus the cost of filtration, good luck retrofitting anything built more than 20 years ago too.

Plus you'd have to do it for personal homes and flats too

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