Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged SARS-CoV-2 was airborne in spring 2020, University of Michigan aerosol scientists Andrew Ault and Kerri Pratt have advised public school systems on how to mitigate the transmission of COVID-19 in the classroom.

That’s partly because social distancing isn’t enough of a mitigation strategy. Have you ever smelled food burning in a kitchen or cigarette smoke in restaurants before indoor smoking was banned? Distance doesn’t automatically mean particles in the air aren’t reaching you, say the researchers.

Now, as students return to school, Ault and Pratt, both associate professors in the U-M Department of Chemistry, give tips about how teachers can keep their classrooms safer for themselves and their students. The key, they say? Masks, open windows, and HEPA filters, including a do-it-yourself air filter made out of furnace filters taped around a box fan.

Can you describe how airborne transmission of COVID works?

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