According to Wall Street Journal’s March issue, as people return this Spring to offices and other indoor spaces, infectious-disease experts highlight the vital roles of air quality and inoculation. Since the World Health Organization’s (WHO) declaration of the cause of the pandemic two years ago, opinion on the importance of temperature checks and deep-cleaning desk surfaces has now been dismissed as very little aids in the removal of the virus and its many mutants. Instead, as businesses and communities return to pre-pandemic behaviors, infectious disease experts, such as Jose-Luis Jimenez (professor of chemistry at the University of Colorado/Boulder) tells us now that “broad vaccine coverage and good air hygiene stand out as the most important mitigation (prevention) efforts.”
The Covid-19 scientist who has researched the transmission of this virus suggests “Although much of the country is beginning to unmask, people who are at higher risk of severe Covid-19 should consider continuing to wear high-quality masks to protect themselves.”
According to research, much of the viral transmission occurs through airborne virus-carrying particles known as aerosols. These may be created as an infected person breathes, speaks, or even laughs. The aerosols may remain in the air and travel across space in rooms.
Here are three important ways to clean indoor air:
1. Pumping virus-laden air outdoors (ventilation) and replacing it with fresh air
2. Filtration or passing air through a filter that traps viral particles; and
3. Disinfection or using ultraviolet light to kill viral particles in the air. Through the use of any or more of these strategies, the amount of air-borne potential virus is diluted and becomes less likely to cause illness. It is recommended that businesses have an engineer tune up or replace filtration and ventilation systems that are not working properly. Air quality should also be subject to regular tests.
It is now believed that the risk is low for office contamination of surfaces or objects. Regular cleaning appears to be sufficient for surfaces such as desks. Dr. Jimenez continues “And some types of barriers – that surround a person – can actually trap air and impede ventilation. In other cases, when people are close and facing each other while speaking, a barrier can be useful.” One epidemiologist at Virginia Tech, Lisa Lee, adds “If you’re a cashier or receptionist and people are speaking right at you without a mask, it (a lateral partition) may be a reasonable thing to have.”
With a great percentage of infected individuals being asymptomatic, studies show that daily temperature monitoring can often miss protecting those who are potentially infectious. Public health experts still recommend that people with Covid-19 symptoms of any mutation (such as fever, cough, loss of smell or taste) to get tested and isolate when they receive a positive result.
Your biggest protection, of course, is still a multiple shot vaccination!
