This App Could Solve a Big Reopening Problem: Cathy O’Neil
The upside of the CO2 issue is that it provides a proxy for a building’s COVID-19 safety.
August 3, 2020 | Bloomberg Opinion | National Real Estate Investor
(Bloomberg Opinion)—Ventilation is perhaps the most underappreciated challenge of reopening during the Covid-19 pandemic. As people increasingly return to indoor spaces such as office buildings, airports, schools and restaurants, they’ll need plenty of outside air, so they won’t walk into a cloud of coronavirus spray. But how can they trust building managers to ensure it’s safe to breathe?
They can’t. Which is why I think people need to cooperate – with the help of technology – to monitor air quality themselves.
Through tragic trial and error, we now know some things about Covid-19 transmission. Being outside, socially distanced and wearing masks is pretty safe. Being crowded inside with poor ventilation is not. The pandemic’s surge in the southern and western U.S. has a lot to do with people seeking refuge from the summer heat in spaces where air-conditioning systems recirculate inside air, exposing them all to each other. Northern states will face a similar problem soon, when colder weather forces more people inside.
