I believe there’s no need to give an introduction to the famous Coronavirus (also known as COVID-19) as it had caused a severe impact on one’s health, financial economy, and lifestyles.
I’m sure by now, everyone is trying to prevent from catching this virus where I had recently published an entry on how to wear a face mask to help you in understanding the right way to wear a face mask.
That’s perfectly useful when you are out there but what about when you stay indoors?
You won’t be wearing a mask simply because, c’mon, it is very very uncomfortable to do so.
Therefore, there’s this question asked quite commonly on the internet of whether an air purifier can really protect against the Coronavirus?
How the Coronavirus Spread
First, let’s rewind a little back to the basics of how this virus spread.
The Coronavirus spread via droplets and it is already 100% proven by many studies. There are rumors that it is possible to spread via airborne but there’s no real evidence showing this yet.
Hence, let’s stick to the factual understanding that the Coronavirus and we tackle this air purifier issue from there.
Can Air Purifier Protect Against the Coronavirus
Based on what we learned on how the virus spread, we can now look at the possible solutions around.
If you are not familiar with how the air purifier works, remember to check out my previous entry on this topic.
First, let’s start with the famous HEPA filter air purifier.
The HEPA air purifier is capable of trapping virus as small as 0.3 microns in size.
Although the size of the Coronavirus is 0.125 microns, it sounds like making the air purifier useless.
The fact is because this virus spread through droplets, this makes the size of the Coronavirus at least 5 microns.
Hence, it is safe to say that the HEPA air purifier is good to combat the Coronavirus.
Even if we assume the rumor of the Coronavirus could spread via airborne, it is not entirely unsafe to use a HEPA air purifier.
Thanks to NASA’s recent study, it is proven that a HEPA filter is 100% effective when it comes to trapping viruses as small as 0.01 microns.
Therefore, the HEPA filter air purifier can protect you against the Coronavirus spread.
What About Ionizers and UV Lamps?
Moving next, there’s also another form of air purifier which is the Ionizer.
If you are not familiar with or wanted to know the difference between the two, you can find more information in my previous entry on the comparison between HEPA and Ionizer.
The ionizer is completely ineffective against droplets and we know by fact that the Coronavirus travels most of the time through droplets.
With this quick sum up, it is sufficient to conclude that the ionizer air purifier is not effective against the Coronavirus.
Last but not least, I’d like to touch a little on the ultraviolet (UV) light uses because it is also quite common for households to use such a method to kill viruses.
The thing about UV light is that it is only effective when you apply it directly onto the virus.
With that being said, any indirect exposure will not give you any protection against the Coronavirus.
As for any UV lamps that people commonly use at home to protect against viruses, it is again not 100% useful as such UV lamps are tuned to lower the dose to reduce any health side effect but it is not effective against viruses anymore.
As a result, I wouldn’t recommend using the UV light method to protect against the Coronavirus.
Conclusion
The short answer to this question, the HEPA air purifier can be used to protect against Coronavirus. In fact, it is recommended to use this type of air purifier at home.
As for the other types of home protection such as ionizer and UV light, they are not going to protect you from the Coronavirus effectively. I wouldn’t recommend the investment into those products.
The Coronavirus is still spreading actively.
Hope that my recent two articles will help you to get through this pandemic period.
Stay safe and stay healthy.
Feel free to drop your comments below on this entry.
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