A new discovery about carbon dioxide is challenging decades-old ventilation doctrine Megan Molteni By Megan Molteni June 4, 2024

https://www.statnews.com/2024/06/04/co2-ventilation-research-virus-airborne-life-haddrell-celebs/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8SZFacoRT2Zxvr-Xplvcb1vMTFguxXiI2rC6sU8Swo-oGLZSYIUA1-JvVRctbWLiUNvR-jJzb7xGagj7he15eW6EdQOQ&_hsmi=309996679&utm_content=309996679&utm_source=hs_email We need to rethink what we know about ventilation and viruses When a disease is airborne, there’s no sensor that can track how many infectious aerosols are floating around us in real time. But the amount of carbon dioxide in the air can act as a proxy. We exhale it when we breathe, so in spaces that aren’t well-ventilated, it accumulates. This made carbon dioxide monitors a hot commodity in 2020 as people navigated indoor spaces during the pandemic. But over the past three years, researchers in the U.K. have learned that CO2 isn’t just a proxy for how much virus there is. The more CO2 in the air, the more virus-friendly that air becomes. It’s a revelation that is already transforming the way scientists study airborne pathogens. Read more from STAT’s Megan Molteni on the science, how the research played into the messy, contentious debates about the virus that causes Covid-19, and what it means going forward.