AN infectious disease expert has suggested that air conditioning may be playing a role in the spread of COVID-19, but says ultraviolet light may be a viable source of sterilising areas where the virus is present.
Edward Nardell, a professor of medicine and global social medicine at Harvard Medical School, has been looking at insights related to tuberculosis and how ultraviolet lights have been long used to remove TB from the air.
He thinks the same could apply to SARS-CoV-2, the strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Dr Nardell, who is also a professor of environmental health and immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, said hot summer temperatures can create situations similar to those in winter when respiratory ailments usually surge - leading people to go indoors where they breathe and rebreathe air that is typically is not refreshed as it would be outside.
“The states that, in June, are already using a lot of air conditioning because of high temperatures are also the places where there’s been greater increases in spread of COVID-19, suggesting more time indoors as temperatures rise,” Dr Nardell said in an article published in the Harvard Gazette. “The same [thing] happens in wintertime, with more time indoors.” Read more >>