This touches on something I think is an obvious follow up from the experiences we’ve had but have not really seem anything about it in general public discussion. That might be just that it’s not really “news worthy” from media’s perspective.
For these airborne diseases it should be obvious (and seems like it’s been demonstrated with some empirical findings from reported cases) that recirculating air internally is not the best idea. You do want to pull outside air in, probably do some filtering of it and perhaps even other sanitizing actions (UV light) and the expel the internal air. But I’ve not heard anything about updates to building code in that regard. Nor have I seen any obvious work on that being done for retail places or apartment/condo or office buildings.
Of course that only works for things like SARS-CoV-2 that doesn’t survive well outside a body so leaves open the possibility that the next pandemic would be the one we pump in from the outside air and don’t have the right filter/sanitizing tools in place.
That might be just that it’s not really “news worthy” from media’s perspective.
Essentially, the media is not interested to engage in journalism on COVID-19 but mostly acts as stenographers for authorities and as a result has declining readership in a time where there’s a very important topic that people want to know about.
But I’ve not heard anything about updates to building code in that regard.
Updating building codes takes years to have effects and is thus not something that’s pushed for right now. Writing good building codes also isn’t easy because we likely want innovation in the field and building codes can easily block new innovation.
Ideally, we should have after the pandemic a discussion about: How do we get rid of flu, what actions can we take everywhere to reduce transmission? That would create a system that’s likely also effective at reducing other pandemic risk.
This touches on something I think is an obvious follow up from the experiences we’ve had but have not really seem anything about it in general public discussion. That might be just that it’s not really “news worthy” from media’s perspective.
For these airborne diseases it should be obvious (and seems like it’s been demonstrated with some empirical findings from reported cases) that recirculating air internally is not the best idea. You do want to pull outside air in, probably do some filtering of it and perhaps even other sanitizing actions (UV light) and the expel the internal air. But I’ve not heard anything about updates to building code in that regard. Nor have I seen any obvious work on that being done for retail places or apartment/condo or office buildings.
Of course that only works for things like SARS-CoV-2 that doesn’t survive well outside a body so leaves open the possibility that the next pandemic would be the one we pump in from the outside air and don’t have the right filter/sanitizing tools in place.
Essentially, the media is not interested to engage in journalism on COVID-19 but mostly acts as stenographers for authorities and as a result has declining readership in a time where there’s a very important topic that people want to know about.
Updating building codes takes years to have effects and is thus not something that’s pushed for right now. Writing good building codes also isn’t easy because we likely want innovation in the field and building codes can easily block new innovation.
Ideally, we should have after the pandemic a discussion about: How do we get rid of flu, what actions can we take everywhere to reduce transmission? That would create a system that’s likely also effective at reducing other pandemic risk.