Aerosol pandemics/NPI

The core purpose of this portal is to systematise, explore and develop what's classically càlled non-pharmacological interventions.

That name implies that they are the minor sibling of the more important "pharmacological interventions" (Vaccines and Pharmacological treatments).

In practice, NPI are more powerful than the other two in several important ways:

• They are "germ agnostic".
• They can be available sooner in a pandemic.
• They have at least, if not more, potential to be available for the whole world, which is extremely important for all in a severe pandemic.
• They have the potential to protect vital systems: for example, the supply, manufacture and distribution chains for vaccines.
• They can simply be left in place regardless of whether there is a pandemic.

It's probably fair to say they receive less public attention than vaccines, and that this situation does a disservice to the whole of humanity.

There has been massive leaps in research and design, but a third element is needed:

• Research has proved the importance of aerosols in driving respiratory pandemics, the importance of fit in masks, the blind spots and confusion spots in public perception.
• Design has created and improved, among other things, filter boxes (a number of them with open source designs, see also PandemicOSAT), commercial and DIY Adjusters, and improved FarUVC devices.
• What's less present is a global Deployment strategy, as hinted at in this article.

With more attention, we'd develop each intervention and their combinations, to be applied locally in different ways depending on circumstances.

These are measures that reduce respiratory contact, by reducing in a more or less intense way the number of contacts between the "contagious" and the "susceptible":

• border control
• lockdown, more or less massive and prolonged
• Targeted lockdown: isolation and quarantine that are ideally guided by broad symptoms and with epidemiological intelligence - perhaps even with apps if they meet requirements and create an ecosystem that make them more useful, and repeated fast and cheap tests, and economically and logistically supported
• Measures of reduction of contacts: online work and education, shifts and different days of work so that there are fewer people simultaneously in the office and in public transport, online or simplified shopping with delivery at home or collection at the store or at an intermediate point, and school de-compression with ruralization by classrooms and mini-tribes for parents of young children. See also Needs and Systems.

Measures that protect respiratory contact, for situations in which "the contagious" and "the susceptible" share physical space. These measures make use of the confirmed fact that most infections occur from aerosols in poorly ventilated interiors where people do not wear masks and either there is no distance or it is insufficient:

• Outdoors
• Ventilate
• Filter
• UV
• Facial protection
• Hoods
• Excubator

The distance is useful outdoors and in well-ventilated indoors. Its usefulness is less in poorly ventilated interiors.

Hand and surface hygiene is of very obvious importance for other pathogens. Its importance to respiratory pathogens is the subject of sometimes heated conversation among scientists. There are scientific articles that argue that the transmission of COVID-19 is mainly by aerosols: droplets small enough that, instead of falling to surfaces right away, they float for a while.

(Needs fleshing out.)

A better name

Focus

Scenarios

Research

Development

Deployment