Five things we could be doing to fight COVID
But we're not
Five things we could be doing about COVID (but we’re not)
We could change the new normal. There are tech solutions. We’re just not investing in them. These are the five I came up with off the top of my head. I am confident that actual research would reveal more.
Nasal sprays have the potential to kill the COVID virus right in your nose - before it gets the chance to infect you. Not a nasal spray vaccine - an anti-viral spray to kill the COVID in your nasal passages before it gets to you.
Nasal spray vaccines, though. They have the potential to be more effective than injected vaccines.
UV lights to kill the virus in open spaces. We could use UV lights to disinfect the actual air. That could be a game changer for indoor spaces. But we’re...just not doing it.
Better air flow in public places. In other words, more focus on air flow and air turnover. We designed most modern buildings to be airtight and recycle air forever to save on heat and cooling costs, but HVAC equipment has settings. We could change them. We could do minor remodels to move more air through.
Better air purification. HEPA filters exist. We could use them, basically everywhere that has HVAC. Yes, they cost more, but this kind of conversion would be ideal for a government grants program, if the government really wanted to prevent infection.
At the international school where I work in Shenzhen, China, we have UV lights in the classrooms that automatically go on every night. They were installed pre-Covid with extra ones added in 2020.