> Early in the pandemic, his efforts focused on lowering inhalation dose of virus-laden aerosol particles indoors. He led an effort to develop an educational tool for assessing parallel interventions for lowering inhalation dose for aerosols and risk of infection in buildings. His concept of a low-cost and effective do-it-yourself air cleaner to combat virus-laden aerosol particles and wildfire smoke has become known worldwide as the Corsi-Rosenthal Box. He recently chaired a National Academies committee responsible for the 2024 report, “Health Risks of Indoor Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter and Practical Mitigation Solutions.”
An awful lot of people who pay attention to engineering solutions for airborne risk reduction - the people who know what ASHRAE is - were saying exactly the same thing throughout nearly the entirety of the pandemic. Because of their advocacy and data, as one example, we got HEPA filters installed in our kids' elementary and preschools as part of the strategy to resume in-person education.
Back to School in a Rapidly Changing World
https://play.prx.org/listen?ge=prx_12369_085cdf46-2a33-4f24-...
Let just say, if you’re looking for baloney, this podcast (and the author / book it discusses) delivers. In short, we were gravely (?) misled.
> Without the HEPA air cleaners, universal masking reduced the combined mean aerosol concentration by 72%. The combination of the two HEPA air cleaners and universal masking reduced overall exposure by up to 90%. The HEPA air cleaners were most effective when they were close to the aerosol source
2022: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35947419/
2022: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34098798/
2021: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7027e1.htmThis was also interesting:
Back to School in a Rapidly Changing World
https://play.prx.org/listen?ge=prx_12369_085cdf46-2a33-4f24-...
Masks and HEPA filters can block droplets that contain viruses. Neither filters out actual virus particles.
The article’s point is we haven’t precisely studied what those probabilities are.
https://www.today.com/health/dr-fauci-shows-how-wear-2-masks...
More recently, on NPR’s The Pulse was this:
Back to School in a Rapidly Changing World
https://play.prx.org/listen?ge=prx_12369_085cdf46-2a33-4f24-...
Let’s just say “the science” we were fed during COVID was lacking in a number of ways.
Please note: The above our not my opinion. These are real things that happened. Please don’t down vote simple because you can’t come to terms with your cognitive dissonance.
https://dynomight.net/ikea-purifier/
Also, I'm pretty sure respiratory viruses need aerosol droplets to get anywhere they can harm you, and those droplets are much bigger than viruses anyway.
The initial theory was that environments like extreme hot and humid climates made it impossible for aerosol droplets to harm people, while dry air increased the risk. This recommendation was change later into the pandemic as new evidence was gathered.
There are similar studies on influenza. There doesn't seem a strong consensus on what environments are safe, or how long such viruses can last outside of large droplets. There is a lot of factors in play, including the virus itself.
If you want to sustain this claim, show us the process by which someone's career was truncated by researching air filtration.
No I don't. What I remember is that they said a lot about social distancing and going outside, and for those who do have to be around others, they initially said you gotta wear N95 since ordinary masks aren't very effective, then they said there's a shortage of N95 masks so please just wear normal masks since at least it's better than nothing, and save the N95s for the hospitals and other high-risk settings/workers.
If you remember it differently, please explain what I'm misremembering, because (unlike a sizable fraction of the population) I don't remember hearing anything nonsensical or misleading about masks, especially given the information and resources they had available at the time.
What does that have to do with masks?
And wasn't this in the beginning of the lockdown while they were scrambling to figure things out?
And "misleading" in what way? I know you and the rest of HN knew exactly the right thing to do in the very start of lockdown, so it's sad that they never came on HN for advice, but what makes you think they knew a better solution and yet held it from you?
You're clearly pushing an agenda. The problem is that these kind of filtration systems couldn't be rolled out en-masse across the world.
During COVID hospitals absolutely were using air filtration systems and places where it made sense (I remember COVID doctor's conferences had advanced filters for each room).
Every jurisdiction had an overreaction fetish. Masks, social distancing and vaccine cards on the left. Ivermectin, detergent pods and intentional exposure on the right.
Maybe there was one with an anti-air filter message. But between New York, the Bay Area, Arizona, Tennessee, Wyoming, London, Frankfurt and New Delhi, I didn’t see it.