My wife works in a doctors office which has stayed open through the pandemic. She sees a few people a day in a small room. The very first thing she did after the pandemic hit the US, was buy an air purifier and she runs it continually. I'm quite surprised that they aren't more common in medical offices in general. The benefits of the air filter are cumulative with other protections—particles caught by the filter can't bypass the mask.
Filters should be mandatory in any enclosed room, the fact that they don't even talk about them as part of the discussion about schools and businesses opening is mind boggling to me.
As with the ventilators, a bungled rush for them is better than not using them at all. Obviously if they had a more ordered distribution it would be better, but any movement in the correct direction would be an improvement.
Here would could at least prioritize schools? Ventilators was only bungled because it turned out to be the wrong therapy... air purifiers is a win win win
Or just mandate them in schools and let the rest of the population figure it out. Though even this would be fraught, there aren't enough air purifiers on store shelves to adequately provide for public schools.
Filters should be mandatory in any enclosed room, the fact that they don't even talk about them as part of the discussion about schools and businesses opening is mind boggling to me.