Over 100,000 Americans currently in hospitals with COVID-19 and over 210,000 new cases today. We are converging on and will soon surpass the 9/11 death toll EVERY SINGLE DAY. And we are going to see a huge surge in the next several weeks & months.
2/ Hospital infrastructure is strained. Morgues have overflown. Front line health care workers are physically and mentally exhausted. This is a tragedy inside of a catastrophe.
3/ Despite all of this, too many people refuse to do what is needed to starve this virus of its hosts. Too many are too accepting of the death and devastation. Too many are fueling an inferno of infectiousness. It's all been said before, but ....
4/ Limit those in your household to immediate family. Isolate those in the family who show symptoms. Quarantine those who may have been in contact with an infector. Use a negative pressure zone for isolation (e.g., box fan in window pointing out).
5/ Employ portable HEPA filters and natural ventilation (if possible) outside of isolation zone. Avoid ALL non-essential indoor environments. Wear a mask in all essential indoor spaces you must visit and avoid those where universal mask wearing is not required and practiced.
6/ Avoid mass transit unless necessary for work or to get to essential needs. Transit authorities - open windows on buses. Ride share companies - open windows in vehicles and require masks for driver and passengers.
7/ Business owners, building owners, & building managers. Require masks for all. Do whatever you can to increase distancing in stores, offices, etc. Increase ventilation (open outdoor air dampers to extent possible; natural ventilation via window/door openings if not).
8/ Improve filtration in mechanical systems w/ upgrade to MERV-13 filters, if possible in system. In smaller buildings, stores, or smaller enclosed zones in buildings - consider one or multiple portable HEPA air cleaners with appropriate Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR).
9/ Consider UVGI (proven technology if done right). Be innovative w/ staggered work hours in office building. If possible, design for air cleansing periods during day to reduce levels of any virus-laden aerosols (3/B hours; B = equivalent ACH from ventilation + filtration)
10/ Do as much outdoors as possible. And employers where it makes sense to do so, allow as much remote work as possible.
Don't underestimate the power of reminders. Keep repeating and reinforcing the importance of starving this virus of its hosts.
11/ Much of the aforementioned is relevant for schools. School-specific slides are provided under "Seminars" at corsiaq.com (see below). These slides include a lot of links to other excellent resources.
12/ For those who have resources, do whatever you can to help employees and businesses in peril without going into non-essential indoor spaces. Take out. Big tips. Purchase gift cards for use six months from now. Maintain gym membership even when not attending, etc. Be generous.
13/ Policymakers/politicians. This is a time for profiles in courage. What you do for the next three months will define your legacy as a leader. Have a backbone. And for goodness sake, lead by example. Just do it!
14/ There are no words for the darkness that confronts us. We will get through this and to a better place. But for the next several months it is up to everyone to do their part to reduce the trail of death, suffering, grieving, and economic devastation. Please, just do it.
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1/ I was asked in an interview today about the history of Indoor Air Quality. I surprised the journalist by starting about 1 million years ago with controlled fires brought into caves.
2/ There is evidence of early recognition of the importance of local exhaust, with fires placed below shafts to the outdoors. How many died from carboxyhemoglobin poisoning before recognition of the importance of ventilation?
3/ Perhaps we can ask the same question today but replace carboxyhemoglobin with COVID-19 and fire in caves with SARS-CoV-2 in (pick your favorite crowded and poorly ventilated indoor space).
Perhaps it is time we learn something from Homo erectus.
2/ The air pollution that we breathe during our lifetime, even pollution of outdoor origin, is dominated by the air we breathe INDOORS.
3/ We can dramatically reduce our exposure to air pollution by reducing emissions from indoor sources, removing pollutants of indoor origin (ventilation & good engineering controls), & designing/operating buildings to reduce outdoor pollution from penetrating indoors.
Highest % of courses with a hands-on component in the entire CSU system.
3rd highest % of students in natural resources and STEM programs in CSU.
CSU’s highest % of STEM grads who go on to earn doctoral degrees, ranking 8th nationally among 660 master’s level institutions.
It's always had a robust Environmental (Resources) Engineering degree program, among the largest and oldest in the US. That program has graduated a large number of highly-qualified engineers who have served the State of California & beyond.
1/ I agree with @Don_Milton. It is important to distinguish between near- and far-field aerosol particles. In the near field (close contact) there is potential for much higher concentration of aerosol particles in the breathing zone of a receptor.
2/ The actual concentration depends on extent of emissions from infector, body positioning of infector and receptor, mixing conditions between infector and receptor (which depends on a number of other factors), and DISTANCE between infector and receptor.
3/ Aerosol particles do not vanish beyond the near field. They exist in the far field and will accumulate until an approximate steady-state is achieved (more on this later) as long as the infector(s) stay in the space.
Sad that we have come to this point. We are here because throughout this mess political leaders, health authorities, and the general public were irresponsible, stubborn, & impatient. Will we learn from this that "fits and starts" is the worst possible policy?
We did not invoke the precautionary principle early on this pandemic, deciding (without any scientific evidence) that only three of four transmission routes were relevant and downplaying transmission by aerosol particles.
Across the board, there was a lack of unified effort to starve this virus of its hosts & manage it. We did not need major investments. What needed to be done was obvious to many scientists from the start, but lacked acceptance by leaders, unified messaging, & public commitment.
1/ Most important thing at the moment is to starve this virus of hosts. Need political leaders, business owners, bldg managers, school officials & public all acting in concert to substantially reduce inhaled dose of virus-laden aerosol particles in indoor near- & far-fields.
2/ We will find ourselves w/ similar challenges again. So, we also need to reflect on all of the things done wrong to get us into this horrific mess, learn from mistakes, and be prepared to do the right things next time.
3/ There have been unconscionable failures of leadership that fueled this mess. But there have also been many other failures, from general public to academia, media to businesses, medical profession to much more.