On September 12, 2020, I suggested that a box fan, some duct tape, and a 3M Filtrete ™ air filter was the best and cheapest approach to safe indoor dining in the COVID-19 era. That’s Post #810.
I am not alone in figuring out that an air-curtain approach is the best possible method for separating individuals, once we all acknowledge that aerosol transmission is possible.
I’ve already voted, so I’m not tracking the debates. But my wife thought it was worth quoting the NY times in this regard. Because the fan-filter-duct tape solution is now slowly entering common knowledge.
"'A box fan, an air filter — and duct tape to attach them. With four such cobbled together devices, at perhaps a total of $150, the vice-presidential debate on Wednesday night could be made much safer, according to experts in airborne viruses."
"Dr. Milton and his colleagues have contacted the debate commission, as well as both campaigns, to recommend purchasing plug-and-play air filters — excellent models cost just $300 each — or four box fans and air filters taped together. Each debater would have one device positioned to suck up and clean the air exhaled, and another to produce clean air.
In research conducted with singers over the past few months, Jelena Srebric, a mechanical engineer at the University of Maryland, found that this so-called Corsi box — named for Richard Corsi, an air quality expert at Portland State University — can significantly decrease the number of aerosols."
We will eventually figure this out. Apollo 13 came home on the basis of duct tape and quick thinking. America will eventually get through this crisis. In part, perhaps, on the same basis.
