After yesterday’s post on CO₂ monitoring, I’ve been happily surprised at how many people expressed interest. Here’s more on that, and a few updates. Vaccines are rolling out as a new danger arrives; it’s more important than ever to be careful and think clearly.
[Read more…]Update on CO₂ monitoring for virus protection
Note: tomorrow I’ll have an important update on the coming surge of the B117 variant.
The Washington Post ran a big piece on CO₂ monitors last week, and I felt smug, because I scooped ’em with my Jan 23 post. CO₂ is a good indication of air freshness, which is important because fresh air dilutes any contaminants, including virus particles. Their article:
[Read more…]
Ventilation for COVID-19 defense, part 2: CO₂ and new warnings
I’ve started compiling all my virus posts into a /covid19 page, which I hope to convert into a series of pages.
Four months ago in Winter’s coming. Time to talk about ventilation for coronavirus defense, I talked about ventilation (fresh air) and about HEPA filters for cleaning indoor air. Here’s an update, focusing particularly on the latest bee in my bonnet: CO₂ detectors.
[Read more…]Winter’s coming. Time to talk about ventilation for coronavirus defense.
Update Nov 11: see also these related posts –
- How universal masking minimizes COVID-19 risk (great graphic) May 28
- Great NY Times visualization of how masks work against mists (aka aerosols) Nov 1
- For a much deeper dive into the mysteries of aerosols (aka mists), with links to things like National Geographic’s risk calculator, see the Google Doc https://tinyurl.com/FAQ-aerosols maintained by José L. Jiménez (@jljcolorado) and other aerosol specialists.
- The problem with “herd immunity” as a COVID-19 strategy May 4
- … and the many informative comments on the original Facebook post, linked in this article, as well as comments on this post.
Zeke Emanuel: “Reopen intelligently. Reopen safely.”
Ezekiel Emanuel MD is the profane, street-wise Chicago politician widely considered (among people I trust, anyway) to be the architect of the Obamacare legislation, not least because of his ability to design it so enough anti-reform forces would let it through. Those pragmatic compromises are the source of much distress among those people I trust, because the law’s not perfect. But it is perfect in the sense that the legislation passed, and has survived all attempts by vehement opponents to cut its nuts off (so far). So when he gives advice, I believe it will be pragmatic and street-wise. And probably blunt. But winning.
Here’s his advice, last week, on what activities are relatively safe or dangerous as this country continues re-opening for better or worse.

How is herd immunity working out for Sweden?
Two months ago I blogged about virus data, and noted that a “natural experiment” was happening in Scandinavia, where Sweden was trying a strategy of herd immunity. It appears to be a complete failure.
The idea was that herd immunity would cause the number of new COVID-19 cases to decline, without the shutdown policies and economic impact adopted by its Scandinavian neighbors. But the rate of new cases in Sweden hasn’t declined, while its neighbors’ all have:
