A paradigm shift to combat indoor respiratory infection.

There is great disparity in the way we think about and address different sources of environmental infection. Governments have for decades promulgated a large amount of legislation and invested heavily in food safety, sanitation, and drinking water for public health purposes. In contrast, airborne pathogens and respiratory infections, whether seasonal influenza or COVID-19, are ad-dressed fairly weakly, if at all, in terms of regulations, standards, and building design and operation, pertaining to the air we breathe. We suggest that the dramatic growth in our understanding of the mechanisms behind respiratory infection transmission should drive a paradigm shift in how we view and address the transmission of respiratory infections to protect present and future generations from unnecessary suffering and economic losses. It starts with a recognition that preventing respiratory infection, like reducing waterborne or food-borne disease, is a tractable problem. See Additional URL below for 'free to read' PDF reprint.