6/ Understand that PLEXIGLASS BARRIERS help in a cashier / teller situation. But they actually INCREASE TRANSMISSION when lateral, as they make ventilation more difficult.
10/ Any mask is better than no mask. But to work best, masks need to:
1) Be a good filter (aerosols stick to it when air goes through its cloth) 2) Let us breathe (low resistance) 3) NOT LEAVE GAPS between face & mask - BIGGEST PROBLEM IN THE REAL WORLD
11/ Since #COVIDisAirborne and AIRBORNE IS THE DOMINANT mode of transmission (see our paper in @TheLancet, thelancet.com/article/S0140-…), we should recommend higher quality masks, especially for riskier situations when sharing indoor air
16/ But filters DO NOT NEED TO BE HEPA!! Cheaper filters built with a regular (Comfort) fan and HVAC filters work just as well and are much cheaper. E.g. #corsirosenthalbox
17/ For more information on the science, the historical errors that have made it so difficult for @WHO and @CDCgov and other govs. to accept that #COVIDisAirborne etc., see this thread and the linked articles and threads:
1/ New paper in @ScienceMagazine: "Mandating Indoor Air Quality for Public Buildings"
Explaining current status of indoor air quality standards (in short: bad or non-existent), the huge health benefits that would arise from them & proposing a path forward science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
2/ "People living in urban & industrialized societies, which are expanding globally, spend more than 90% of time indoors, breathing indoor air (IA)."
"Most countries do NOT have legislated indoor air quality (IAQ) performance standards for public spaces"
1/ Measuring CO2 indoors in a 10 day trip from US to Europe & back
Bus @RideRTD to Denver airport, poorly ventilated as usual.
We have not left town yet! In previous trips it kept increasing, we'll see this time.
2/ For background on what CO2 indoors indicates and more details, see
TLDR:
- We exhale 40000 ppm CO2
- Outdoors: 420
- Each 400 extra ppm indoors = 1% extra rebreathed air
- CO2 makes us dumber, indicator of virus & pollutants. Does not capture filteringdocs.google.com/document/d/e/2…
3/ Or by reducing recirculation. Some recirculation is ok if well-filtered, saves energy.
Energy-recovery ventilators allow ventilating well with limited energy use.