Circling back to one of your previous articles "New insights: How much does air exchange really matter for Covid-19 transmission? "
It made me think about all the businesses that invested in new ventilation systems at the beginning of Covid. Why don't we have a sticker on the door or some way of knowing where these systems have been upgraded? There is no reward for the businesses who went the extra mile to protect their customers. Seems like such a waste of the momentum that Covid sparked in the the movement for cleaner air spaces. Sounds like a job for Inside Medicine:)
I've thought the same thing myself. My guess has been that not that many businesses did, in fact, upgrade their ventilation systems. I hope I'm wrong about that, but if they did, why wouldn't they advertise it? They certainly make a big show of hand washing and sanitizing. Better ventilation is the biggest single thing next to vaccines that one can do to improve transmission with respiratory viruses. It's a chance to educate people as well about how important ventilation is. I just don't get why any business that made that investment wouldn't want to shout it from the rooftops!
Here in the Portland Oregon area many businesses did upgrade their ventilation systems. What is the incentive now for maintaining these systems and for other companies to upgrade? Seems like a lost opportunity to promote a practice that is beneficial for so many other reasons than Covid!
I'm glad to hear it. I lived in my home state of Maryland for all but the last six months of this pandemic and I know of only ONE business that upgraded its ventilation system and made a point of sending out emails to its clients to say so. And, from speaking to my massage therapist at that business, I know that most people working there fared better than the general populace in terms of getting COVID. Now living in North Carolina, I have seen no evidence of upgraded ventilation, just pieces of paper stuck to walls saying how they've improved sanitation. So many lost opportunities during this pandemic. It's sad.
We had word that a local “indie” movie theatre that was being purchased was putting in a new ventilation system. Unfortunately I read later elsewhere that is was a pretty ineffective type.
I'm not surprised. Along with other measures the government took, it should have funded ventilation upgrades for businesses of all types. This, again, was an opportunity to upgrade our systems and public health infrastructure, not only for this pandemic but for other airborne pathogens and pandemics to come. As far as I can tell, in some fundamental ways, we're less prepared as a society for the next pandemic than we were for this one.
Thanks for taking on the new "respiratory isolation" guidelines: my issue with them is lumping all respiratory viruses together and the lack of clarity and actual guidance.
I looked at Canada/France/UK and everyone else stopped recommending 5 days of isolation, but no one lumped Covid in with RSV. Canada has a nice interactive site to give personalized guidance about isolation and masking.
As someone who still tries not to get infected, I find the rolling back of all public health supports and lack of acknowledgement of Covid as still, currently, a more infectious and damaging/dangerous virus than the other "respiratory viruses" quite discouraging and disingenuous.
Katherine Wu wrote a nice article in The Atlantic about the false equivalence of flu/Covid and her final paragraphs were about how we could have ended up with more public health/health but no.
I think it’s tough to compare flu and Covid. The immune histories of Covid are soooo divergent person to person. I think there’s less of a spectrum on flu. We are headed towards a world in which they are similar. But I would not make a general argument, if it were me.
Nice to know that nirsevimab worked in babies. Wondering if this might be useful in high-risk (e.g., immunocompromised) adults, akin to the use of Evusheld (or updated versions now being reviewed) for Covid prophylaxis.
I remember hearing about the guy who got so many doses of the covid vaccine, and hoped they would follow up with him. If I recall he was an unhoused person and was taking advantage of the incentives given to get the vaccine at the time (many places offered $25/50 cash or gift certificates, must have in Germany as well). Glad he could cash in and seems to have no long-term issues!
Circling back to one of your previous articles "New insights: How much does air exchange really matter for Covid-19 transmission? "
It made me think about all the businesses that invested in new ventilation systems at the beginning of Covid. Why don't we have a sticker on the door or some way of knowing where these systems have been upgraded? There is no reward for the businesses who went the extra mile to protect their customers. Seems like such a waste of the momentum that Covid sparked in the the movement for cleaner air spaces. Sounds like a job for Inside Medicine:)
I've thought the same thing myself. My guess has been that not that many businesses did, in fact, upgrade their ventilation systems. I hope I'm wrong about that, but if they did, why wouldn't they advertise it? They certainly make a big show of hand washing and sanitizing. Better ventilation is the biggest single thing next to vaccines that one can do to improve transmission with respiratory viruses. It's a chance to educate people as well about how important ventilation is. I just don't get why any business that made that investment wouldn't want to shout it from the rooftops!
Here in the Portland Oregon area many businesses did upgrade their ventilation systems. What is the incentive now for maintaining these systems and for other companies to upgrade? Seems like a lost opportunity to promote a practice that is beneficial for so many other reasons than Covid!
I'm glad to hear it. I lived in my home state of Maryland for all but the last six months of this pandemic and I know of only ONE business that upgraded its ventilation system and made a point of sending out emails to its clients to say so. And, from speaking to my massage therapist at that business, I know that most people working there fared better than the general populace in terms of getting COVID. Now living in North Carolina, I have seen no evidence of upgraded ventilation, just pieces of paper stuck to walls saying how they've improved sanitation. So many lost opportunities during this pandemic. It's sad.
We had word that a local “indie” movie theatre that was being purchased was putting in a new ventilation system. Unfortunately I read later elsewhere that is was a pretty ineffective type.
I'm not surprised. Along with other measures the government took, it should have funded ventilation upgrades for businesses of all types. This, again, was an opportunity to upgrade our systems and public health infrastructure, not only for this pandemic but for other airborne pathogens and pandemics to come. As far as I can tell, in some fundamental ways, we're less prepared as a society for the next pandemic than we were for this one.
Thanks for taking on the new "respiratory isolation" guidelines: my issue with them is lumping all respiratory viruses together and the lack of clarity and actual guidance.
I looked at Canada/France/UK and everyone else stopped recommending 5 days of isolation, but no one lumped Covid in with RSV. Canada has a nice interactive site to give personalized guidance about isolation and masking.
As someone who still tries not to get infected, I find the rolling back of all public health supports and lack of acknowledgement of Covid as still, currently, a more infectious and damaging/dangerous virus than the other "respiratory viruses" quite discouraging and disingenuous.
Katherine Wu wrote a nice article in The Atlantic about the false equivalence of flu/Covid and her final paragraphs were about how we could have ended up with more public health/health but no.
Can you send / post the Canada guidance?
I think it’s tough to compare flu and Covid. The immune histories of Covid are soooo divergent person to person. I think there’s less of a spectrum on flu. We are headed towards a world in which they are similar. But I would not make a general argument, if it were me.
Here are all the regional guidelines, they all seem to have self assessments https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection/symptoms/provincial-territorial-resources-covid-19.html
This is from Ottawa:https://www.ontario.ca/self-assessment/
Nice to know that nirsevimab worked in babies. Wondering if this might be useful in high-risk (e.g., immunocompromised) adults, akin to the use of Evusheld (or updated versions now being reviewed) for Covid prophylaxis.
I'd like to know as well. I think the vaccine for that group is what CDC is focused on.
Yes, but the immunocompromised may not respond to the vaccine…
Yeah that’s absolutely a key point. I’ll poke around on this
I remember hearing about the guy who got so many doses of the covid vaccine, and hoped they would follow up with him. If I recall he was an unhoused person and was taking advantage of the incentives given to get the vaccine at the time (many places offered $25/50 cash or gift certificates, must have in Germany as well). Glad he could cash in and seems to have no long-term issues!
Such a weird story though
He was selling his vaccine cards!