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Morawska does not report any relevant financial information. In the article you will find all relevant financial information from all other authors.
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In a recent article in Science, researchers advocated a “paradigm shift” in how policymakers and civil engineers approach indoor air quality and health to reduce the spread of respiratory infections.
Lidia Moravian
“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how unprepared the world was to respond, despite lessons learned from previous pandemics.” Lidia Moravian, PhD, MSc, Director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health and colleagues wrote.
“A paradigm shift is required to the extent that Chadwick’s 1842 Plumbing Report led the British government to encourage cities to organize clean water supplies and centralized sewer systems,” they wrote. “In the 21st century, we need to lay the foundations to ensure that the air in our buildings is clean and that the number of pathogens is significantly reduced. This contributes to the health of the building’s residents, just as we would expect from the water that leaks from our faucets. ”
Healio spoke to Morawska about the way forward.
Healio: What financial investments would it take to protect buildings from respiratory viruses?
Moravian: As we explain in the paper, there is no exact value either for the whole world or for individual countries. In the absence of recognition that this is a risk that can and should be controlled, proper economic analysis has not been conducted. However, since the cost of the COVID-19 pandemic is already more than $ 1 trillion and the annual cost of respiratory infections in the US alone is on the order of tens of billions of dollars, any investment would be in construction a small fraction of it. Estimates assume that the investment costs would be in the order of magnitude of a 1% increase in new construction costs.
Healio: Who writes the recommendations that they say should be written?
Moravian: Expert groups covering all relevant areas of science and technology.
Healio: What would the recommendations address?
Moravian: How to design buildings, how to provide them with adequate engineering controls, how all requirements should be linked, including low energy consumption.
Healio: Which buildings should be prioritized?
Moravian: The well-being of all people is important, that is, all buildings.
Healio: Could the COVID-19 pandemic have been any different if these issues had been addressed at the level that governments were addressing food and water security?
Moravian: Tens of thousands of cases worldwide would have been prevented, as well as hundreds of thousands of deaths.
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