OPINION:
“Shelter-in-place orders didn’t help, researchers find” (Page 1, July 5) was interesting. I have not read the report mentioned, but I have heard sections of it quoted. I wonder if the authors are aware that ASHRAE, the society of engineers who do HVAC work, sent a team to look at what happened vis-a-vis COVID-19 in New York and Florida. There, I have been told, they found that COVID-19 spread most rapidly in heavily sealed buildings such as nursing homes and those compliant with the Green New Deal’s ideals.
New York City has the largest concentration of such buildings, and the actual infection pattern, per ASHRAE, went up and down the buildings. In Philadelphia, which has virtually nothing Green-New-Deal-sealed except nursing homes, nursing-home deaths were nearly 70% of Pennsylvani’s total deaths. The buildings that were tightly sealed were office buildings, which were closed.
The largest COVID-19 surge in Florida coincided with the start of air-conditoning season last year. There are imilar results all over the U.S. You can also point to similar trends in England, where London was clobbered.
To save energy, the Green New Deal building ideal has only about a 7% to 8% air turnover. That is not enough to flush out germs, household chemicals or even carbon dioxide. The healthy minimum is considered to be 25% to 30%, but of course to the political left that just means more energy wasted.
JAMES BARENDS
Wayne, Pa.
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