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Boosted by soatok@furry.engineer ("Soatok Dreamseeker 🔜 Megaplex"):
thatkatharine@ohai.social wrote:

If you see a headline that says "air purifiers don't work," read the report to find out if the air purifiers were even turned on and running properly.

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/can-air-purifiers-prevent-flu-and-covid-19-nursing-homes-only-if-they-re-used-properly

Studies of air filters in the real world, however, have been less promising. A new study from the United Kingdom found that portable air purifiers didn’t prevent respiratory infections in nursing home residents.
In the study, authors wrote that HEPA units were mostly turned to the lowest setting to reduce noise, at the request of nursing home staff. “That isn't going to run that much air through,” said Lisa Brosseau, ScD, CIH, a research consultant at the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), which publishes CIDRAP News. “But it's quieter and people are going to be able to stand it.” Nursing home staff also told researchers that residents, many of whom had dementia, sometimes moved or tampered with the air purifiers. One resident urinated into the air purifier, according to a companion article published in PLOS One. Another resident put the air purifier on his windowsill. Staff told researchers that another resident “goes around” and turns off the air purifier nearest him “because he doesn’t like the electricity being spent.”
Hay said his team considered visiting nursing homes to see if the air filters were being used, but decided against it, given the risk of transmitting COVID-19. Asking nursing home staff to help measure air quality “could have resulted in care homes and residents deciding they did not want to endure the intervention and withdrawing” from the study. Given the limitations of the study, Allen said authors should have tempered their conclusions. “The biggest problem is that the conclusion doesn't match the data.” Allen said. “If you look strictly at the data, the conclusion is a small HEPA filter that's turned off doesn't work.”