COVID-19 protocols

Air travel requires spending time around large numbers of people, such as in security lines and communal gathering areas of airport terminals. Although many viruses do not spread easily on flights because of how air is circulated and filtered, social distancing is difficult on crowded flights. Sitting within 6 feet of others, sometimes for hours, could increase risk of contracting COVID-19.

Before vaccines are proven effective and become widely available, government, organizations, and individuals can implement strategies to reduce SARS-CoV-2 infection and the resulting COVID-19 disease. Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) include social distancing/physical distancing/ border closures, school closures, isolation of symptomatic individuals and their contacts and large-scale lockdown of populations. Most of these strategies involve behavior change. Evidence from prior pandemics, such as the 1918 influenza pandemic, suggest that behavior change is a necessary component of responding to the currentCOVID-19 pandemic.

Engineering-based interventions, such as additions or modifications to HV/AC systems, implementation of dust suppression measures, and other solutions can be effective at limiting the spread of infectious respiratory diseases. Because they do not require behavior change on the part of individuals or oversight and enforcement measures by organizations.

Dust suppression has been proven effective at reducing the number of airborne organisms. During World War I, sailors aboard U.S. Navy ships applied oil to floors and wool blankets to reduce the amount of dust in the air. Later studies indicate that the practice reduced airborne organisms by 75% to 90%. However, studies conducted on soldiers between 1944 and 1945 and on sailors between 1945 and 1946 failed to document a beneficial effect from oiling blankets and floors during outbreaks of acute respiratory disease.

Before vaccines are proven effective and become widely available, government, organizations, and individuals can implement strategies to reduce SARS-CoV-2 infection and the resulting COVID-19 disease. Most of these strategies involve behavior changebehavior change. Evidence from prior pandemics, such as the 1918 influenza pandemic, suggest that behavior change is a necessary component of responding to the current pandemic.

In the mid-1800s, Ignaz Semmelweis introduced hand-washing into the standard medical protocol for reducing infection risk. By 1848, one year after instituting a hand-washing policy in an obstetric clinic in AustriaAustria, maternal death rate had declined by 87 percent.

Before vaccines are proven effective and become widely available, government, organizations, and individuals can implement strategies to reduce SARS-CoV-2 infection and the resulting COVID-19 disease. Most of these strategies involve behavior change. Evidence from prior pandemics, such as the 1918 influenza pandemic, suggest that behavior change is a necessary component of responding to the current pandemic.

Allegrante et al published a review of U.S. CDC recommendations for individual behavior change to help reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2. They suggest that adherence to these guidelines is dependent on an individual's relationship with multiple layers of society.

John P. Allegrante, PhD et al (May 2020) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2020.05.004

Allegrante et al find:

Such multilevel studies are necessary to further understand the influences on protective behavior and evaluate the effect of novel behavioral interventions, especially those that are digitally mediated, to facilitate adoption and maintenance of COVID-19‒preventive behaviors.

A 2005 meta-analysis of non-vaccine interventions to prevent infectious acute respiratory disease (ARD) in military training centers found many types of policies and protocols which result in lower rates of infection. The meta-analysis, published by Terrence Lee et al, evaluated a sample of 38 population-based studies.

• 9 of 12 studies into mask-wearing supported the intervention.
• 10 studies into various administrative controls such as cohorting military training units to reduce contact between units (4 studies), providing adequate personal space to reduce crowding (5), and cloth barriers between beds (1); and 14 studies supported the use of engineering controls such as increased indoor air dilution and ventilation (2), dust suppression (4), and air sterilization (8).

A 2001 study of U.S. Army recruits found that hand-washing results in reduced outpatient visits for respiratory illnesses. A review of clinical records from 1996 through 1998 (representing 1,089,800 person-weeks) found that frequent hand-washers had fewer outpatient appointments for respiratory illnesses. After implementing a hand-washing program, researchers saw a 45% reduction in total outpatient visits for respiratory illness.

In the mid-1800s, Ignaz Semmelweis introduced hand-washing into the standard medical protocol for reducing infection risk. By 1848, one year after instituting a hand-washing policy in an obstetric clinic in Austria, maternal death rate had declined by 87 percent.