The question of whether air conditioning helps spread the coronavirus comes as states begin to allow indoor businesses to reopen.
While it’s theoretically possible that air conditioning can facilitate the spread of the virus, a lot of factors would have to align for that to happen, such as the timing of a cough or a gush of air at the right moment, Joseph Fair, a virologist and a NBC News contributor, said.
Spread through air conditioning isn’t a major factor in transmission, as the numbers don’t reflect that, he said. “If you think about how many Americans use AC, it's 9 out of 10 of us, so we'd have a lot more [cases] than what we have right now,” Fair said. With proper ventilation, coronavirus transmission shouldn’t be an issue, said Bill Bahnfleth, a professor of architectural engineering at the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment. In the instance where the virus may have spread in a restaurant, the ventilation didn’t meet the standards used in the U.S., he said.
“Ventilation and filtration provided by heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems can reduce the airborne concentration of SARS-CoV-2 and thus the risk of transmission through the air,” the statement said. “In general, disabling of heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems is not a recommended measure to reduce the transmission of the virus.”
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