Filtration, air exchange and air disinfection are the new COVID-19 focus – Poynter

Covering COVID-19 is a daily Poynter briefing of story ideas about the coronavirus and other timely topics for journalists, written by senior faculty Al Tompkins. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.

Today, the White House begins a push to fight a resurgence of COVID-19 by encouraging building owners and managers to focus on what it calls the Clean Air in Buildings Challenge. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy will hold a 12:30 p.m. webinar Tuesday on the topic.

In short, the strategy encourages people to open windows and let air inside closed buildings, use air filtration systems like HEPA or MERV-13, and consider adding ultraviolet germicidal irradiation systems to HVAC units. The White House explains:

Research shows changing the air in a room multiple times an hour with filtered or clean outdoor air using a window fan, by using higher MERV filters in an Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system, using portable air cleaning devices, and even just opening a window can reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission with studies showing five air changes an hour reduce transmission risk by 50 percent. And, improving indoor air has benefits beyond COVID-19: it will reduce the risk of getting the flu, a common cold, or other diseases spread by air, and lead to better overall health outcomes.

Some of these suggestions are easy and common-sense measures while others can be expensive and might be more suitable for new construction rather than retrofitting existing systems. Given all of the new home, apartment and condo construction going on, I wonder if builders are considering these ideas in their new units. I also wonder how much of an attraction these filtration measures would be for office space shoppers.

The American Rescue Plan includes billions of dollars to improve filtration. The White House says:

Federal funds and resources are available to support improvements in ventilation, filtration, and clean indoor air the American Rescue Plan has $122 billion for schools and $350 billion for state, local, and Tribal governments, which can support upgrades to their local businesses, nonprofits, community centers, and other commercial and public establishments. Additionally, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides billions of dollars to our communities to support peoples health and safety in new or upgraded airports, transportation hubs, low-income housing, schools, and other buildings.

Kaiser Health News found that thousands of schools across 44 states used federal recovery funds to install air filtration systems that use unproven technology. In fact, some of the units installed in public classrooms made air quality worse, pumping high levels of ozone into the buildings.

Because this one budget line item, HVAC filtration, involves so much money, and there is so much hype about unproven technology, it is worth journalists effort to track the spending. In Ohio, for example, the state is spending a half-billion dollars on filtration upgrades. The Dayton Daily News spent time with the workers who install the systems. Future Eds survey of 3,500 school systems, including charter schools, found HVAC upgrades were the single biggest category of intended spending of federal COVID-19 aid.

(FutureEd)

Future Ed reports:

More than half the districts and charters in the sample, 1,668, expect to spend money on school climate systems, and HVAC is a top-three priority in every region.

The spending averages out to about $401 per student across agencies choosing this option.

Such improvements are explicitly allowed in American Rescue Plan since they can not only prevent the spread of Covid, but can also guard against other airborne illnesses and provide a more comfortable climate for learning.

Under the current federal guidelines, all HVAC improvements must be completed by September 2024. So this work will take years to complete and journalists should start thinking about how they will track this massive spending for years to come.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki didnt make the trip to Europe because she tested positive just before Air Force One packed up to leave. Deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made the trip instead. And now, she has tested positive.

A man wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus walks near a banner reminding the precautions against the coronavirus at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

It appears that the incredible COVID-19 run through South Korea may be on the decline. The New York Times reports, South Korea reported 187,213 new virus cases on Monday, about 100,000 fewer than the day before, and 287 virus-related deaths were reported, down sharply from last Thursdays record of 470. The death rate would certainly have been worse in a less inoculated country, but Korea vaccinated 87% of its population.

New cars are rolling off the assembly line ready to connect like a smartphone to a wireless provider. USA Today notes:

Last week, BMW launched the first 5G-equipped car the 2022 BMW iX xDrive50, powered by T-Mobiles new Magenta Drive service. The $20/month service provides high-speed connectivity to the car, both for calls and data services. In addition, it powers an internal Wi-Fi hotspot that can support up to 10 devices in and around the car.

In the future, your car may get software updates just like your phone and laptop do now right over the internet. USA Today reports:

During the pandemic, people became very accustomed to having high-speed Internet access for all their devices, and as we start to travel more, that need for high-speed access wherever people go will grow. In that light, T-Mobiles claim to offer 5G coverage on 92% of interstate highway miles across the U.S. makes the notion of a connected car more appealing than it may first appear.

But carmakers are not planning to build 5G connections into autonomous driving technology since signal dropouts are inevitable.

Los Angeles police say Chris Rock does not want to press charges against Will Smith. But It got me wondering if there is ever a defense for smacking another person who insults you or your loved one?

The Mattern Law Firm in Los Angeles explains that assault does not even have to include physical contact.

Put simply, battery involves intentional contact thats harmful, and assault requires no contact at all. Take this example. A person tries to punch someone but doesnt they could be charged with assault even if they missed. For it to also be battery, actual contact would have had to be made.

How Stuff Works took the question to Micah Schwartzbach, a California criminal defense lawyer, who said:

In general, you have to not be the aggressor and you have to reasonably believe that force is necessary to protect yourself from some imminent violence, says Schwartzbach. And on top of that, you have to use a proportionate amount of force.

There are some really important points for distinguishing between a legal and illegal punch.

No.1, you cant strike first. That would make you the aggressor. Its hard to argue self-defense when youre literally on the attack.

Second, you can only punch someone if theyve already taken a swing at you or if you believe youre about to be hit. Schwartzbach says that its also possible to claim self-defense if you punch your attacker while hes winding up to smack you, but youd need some fast hands.

And third, you cant escalate the fight. If the drunk guy at the bar doesnt like the way youre looking at his girlfriend (yes, another clich) and shoves you on the shoulder, youre not justified to break a bottle over his head. Youre probably not even justified to punch him. Or slap him.

But this incident at the Oscars involves movie stars, so lets explore the thems fightin words argument. Schwartzbach says that is a widely misunderstood defense for smacking somebody:

Even though fighting words arent protected as free speech, theyre still not a legal justification for violence. Schwartzbach says that even if someone threatens you and says theyre going to beat you up or kill you, the law doesnt give you the right to slug them.

Its one thing for it to be understandable that someone threatens to kill you and you punch them in the face, says Schwartzbach. But if theres no indication that the person was about to harm you in some way and you had time to go talk to the police, youre likely not going to have a legal defense.

Metro asked a therapist about the Oscar smackdown:

Relationship coach Liam Barnett agrees that you should stick up for your partner, but only after you have given them the opportunity to stick up for themselves first.

Reacting immediately could make them feel inferior and weak towards the person that is insulting them, says Liam.

If you notice that they need help, then you can interfere by drawing some boundaries. Make them notice the person whos insulting them that what theyre saying or doing is wrong.

How do strike the balance and give your partner the support they need without making the issue about you and your anger?

I think its reasonable to expect that a partner would support you during times of distress, says Naomi Segal, couples psychotherapist and founder of The Couple Consultancy.

What that support or sticking up for looks like, however, depends on what your partner needs in that moment. For some, this may be soothing after an incident, for others it may be for a partner to represent them at times when they feel unable to do it themselves.

Remember, even if there is no criminal charge, when a rich movie star hits you, a civil lawsuit may be an option. And the slap could still cost Will Smith his Oscar. The Academy has rescinded Oscars to other disgraced honorees.

Smith apologized to Rock, the Academy, the shows producers, the attendees, everyone watching around the world, the Williams Family and his King Richard Family on Monday night. Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive, he said. My behavior at last nights Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable.

A pedestrian carries an umbrella while walking on a path in front of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In the last two decades, 26 people who have attempted to take their own life by leaping from the Golden Gate Bridge still showed signs of life when they were rescued from the water. 14 of them survived crashing into the water at 75 miles per hour. But why did some survive and others didnt?

The answer is emerging that the way that the MarinHealth Medical Center treated the survivors made a lifesaving difference. But even the physicians and medical workers doing the rescue work cannot pinpoint why more people survive now. Part of the answer is that the survival rate went up around the same time the medical center began staffing as a trauma center, which designates caseloads and staff level. Today, anyone who jumps from the bridge goes straight to MarinHealth. Before, they might have been transported further across the bay.

In the 85 years since the bridge opened, 1,800 people have died after jumping from it. Engineers are currently installing new netting to prevent people from jumping to their death.

Well be back tomorrow with a new edition of Covering COVID-19. Are you subscribed? Sign up hereto get it delivered right to your inbox.

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Filtration, air exchange and air disinfection are the new COVID-19 focus - Poynter