In early 2020 , the world scrubbed down surfaces , washed hands and sneezed into elbows , desperate to avoid infection with a new coronavirus . But the threat was not really lying on countertops and doorknobs .
The virus was wafting through the air , set adrift in coughs and conversation , even in song . The pandemic raged for six months before global health authorities acknowledged that it was driven by an airborne pathogen .
With that revelation came another : Had indoor air quality ever been a priority , the pandemic would have exacted a far lighter toll in the United States .
More than three years later , little has changed . Most Americans are still squeezing into offices , classrooms , restaurants and shops with inadequate , often decrepit ventilation systems , often in buildings with windows sealed shut .
Scientists agree that the next pandemic will almost certainly arise from another airborne virus . But improving air quality isn ’ t just about fighting infectious diseases : Indoor pollution can damage the heart , lungs and brain , shortening life spans and lowering cognition .
And wildfires , outdoor air pollution and climate change will quickly preclude Band‐Aid solutions , like simply opening windows or pumping in more air from outside .
Instead , the nation will have to begin to think about the indoor air — in schools , restaurants , offices , trains , airports , movie theaters — as an environment that greatly influences human health . Improving it will require money , scientific guidance on how clean the air needs to be and , most crucially , political will to compel change .
“ The push for clean water is considered one of the 10 biggest public health advances of the last century , and air should be no different ,” said Linsey Marr , an expert in airborne transmission of viruses at Virginia Tech .
Federal and state laws govern the quality of water , food and outdoor pollution , but there are no regulations for indoor air quality overall , only scattershot limits on a few pollutants . Nor does any single federal agency or official champion the cause . Image
Without building codes or laws to enforce them , efforts to address air quality have so far been patchy . Some cities , school districts and businesses have forged ahead on their own . But by and large , Americans are still breathing the indoor air that set the stage for the pandemic .
“ Everyone just does the minimum ,” said Shelly Miller , an aerosol expert at the University of Colorado Boulder .
The real obstacle now , experts said in interviews , is the lack of leadership — a federal agency or even a ventilation czar to enforce recommendations and set the nation on a long‐needed course to improve indoor air quality .