News

Clean air for pandemic proof buildings

A strategy presented by the expert group on "Pandemic-proof buildings" in the form of a White Paper. Download the White Paper (PDF) Over 150 years ago, the risks of waterborne diseases such as Cholera were tamed by the public provision of clean water. We argue that...

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A guide towards healthy classrooms

How can we reduce the potential spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus through aerosol transmission in  classrooms? Researchers from Europe’s COST-Action INDAIRPOLLNET (led by Xavier Querol and Maricruz Minguillón from CSIC and Michael Riediker from SCOEH) developed a guide...

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This winter, be quiet when going to ski

Winter has arrived and so did a second wave of the Corona-disease. With winter comes also snow and the desire to go skiing. But is it safe? The debates are heated and governments take actions that go from asking people to mask up to prohibiting skiing all-together. But what does science tell us? Let’s look at some of the strategies.

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A tool to rapidly simulate the airborne virus exposure in different indoor scenarios

We estimated the variability of the viral emission strength in the general infected population when breathing, speaking softly and loudly. Thus, how often we have to expect that an infected person has low, medium or high virus emissions.
We then packaged all the complicated statistics into an easy to use tool that allows experts a rapid simulation of a wide range of indoor scenarios. Here you can read more about it and download the tool (an Excel-Spreadsheet).

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How can we stay safe in fall and winter? Part 2: collective measures

In my last blog I talked about individual measures that each and everyone can take to stay safe and healthy. Here I will touch on collective measures. Collective measures are those that need to be done together to protect everybody or a specific group of people, such as the elderly and sick. Typically collective measures need the definition of rules within a larger collective, such as a company or by a government.

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Only few emit sufficient virus to be infectious via aerosols – but this is still bad news!

We published a model to estimate viral aerosol emissions from simulated individuals with asymptomatic to moderate COVID-19. People in the same room as a super-emitter are likely to get infected. Aerosol super-emission of viruses is a rare phenomenon but still a big public health problem. Ventilation helps, but measuring CO2 in the room is not giving the information we need.

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How to contain COVID-19 when restarting school

Worldwide, countries closed their schools because of COVID-19. But in Switzerland, in three weeks from now, schools are supposed to reopen. Can this be done safely? Probably yes, but only with great prudence! It is not enough to hope that the kids will be fine....

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Shall masks be worn? Yes, but it depends!

True or false? „Washing hands is useless because people don’t do it right and because they touch their face too often!“ FALSE! But why do we hear the same arguments about wearing hygiene mask (surgical masks) to prevent the spread of the respiratory disease COVID-19?...

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