Any doctors in the house? - Air Purifier Question

[TickTockMan]

So I have been asking since the start of COVID19 if air purifiers can help with COVID. I have never got any for sure answers.


Have you read or seen any evidence of air purifiers being helpful with COVID?

 

[KaraBulut]

So I have been asking since the start of COVID19 if air purifiers can help with COVID. I have never got any for sure answers.


Have you read or seen any evidence of air purifiers being helpful with COVID?

The answer is that an air purifier with a HEPA filter or an ionic purifier would only be of value if it is between you and an infected person.

Coronavirus is carried on droplets. When a person sneezes, the virus is aerosolized on droplets that get dispersed into the air around them. Any sort of filter would have to be intercept those droplets before another person inhaled them. That was the idea behind masking- it did two things: it prevented droplets from the infected person from being aerosolized and it added a barrier for the uninfected person that reduced the chance of them inhaling the infected droplet.

The only effective usage of air purifiers was in negative-pressure hospital rooms and in some "space suit" type protective gear used in ICUs. Home air purifiers tend to be over in the corner of the room, so they are unlikely to be effective in catching droplets from the people in the middle of the room.

 

[TickTockMan]

Thanks