COVID-19 predominantly spreads person-to-person through the air. There are three rules anyone can follow to limit its spread: Assume you have it, assume everyone else has it and minimize the amount of unfiltered air you share with others.
Unless you are incommunicado off-planet, you are likely aware that masking and social distancing are critical in limiting the spread of COVID-19. Less well known, even among front-line medical providers, is the equally important preventive measure of optimal indoor ventilation. This is demonstrated by the super-spreader event among trained medical staff that occurred Christmas Day in a San Jose. A well-intended asymptomatic COVID-19 infected team member, hoping to improve morale, donned an air-powered Christmas tree costume at a hospital emergency room, resulting in 44 infected coworkers and one death. The air expelled from the costume effectively disseminated COVID-19-laden respiratory droplets throughout the facility.
When we treat a known COVID-19-positive patient, we can protect ourselves by being “upwind” of the ill person in addition to wearing personal protective equipment. Sometimes we wear positive-pressure headgear with a HEPA filter for intake air. Unfortunately, these devices generally do not filter outflowing air. So, like the costume, if the wearer is COVID-19-positive, there exists the potential for this self-protective device to spread the infection to others. Likewise, an N95 mask with an exhalation valve protects the wearer, but disregards the safety of others.
The great outdoors is well ventilated, and therefore is very protective against COVID-19 transmission. However, even Mother Nature can be thwarted by unmasked, vocal crowds, as demonstrated by Justice Amy Barrett’s super-spreader celebration at the Rose Garden.
Steve Tower, M.D.
Affiliated Professor, Alaska’s Medical School
Anchorage
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