How to Stay Safe From COVID-19, According to Dr. Fauci

3. Stay away from poorly ventilated places

Fauci recommends avoiding small and poorly ventilated spaces. “We need to pay a little bit more attention now to the recirculation of air indoors,” said in his interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in August. He continued saying that while he believes there “certainly is a degree of aerosolization,” there isn’t clear evidence to prove this theory.

According to a May 2020 study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, respiratory droplets stay for a longer period of time in poorly ventilated rooms with little air-flow, compared to better-ventilated spaces.

4. If sharing a car with other people, keep the windows down

Air-flow is just as important in a car as it is indoors. “When I’m in a car now, I keep the window open,” Fauci said during the Facebook Live chat with Raimondo. “Even though the person who’s driving the car and me both have masks on, I keep the masks on and keep the windows open.”

It is true that sharing a car with strangers is still very risky, keeping the windows down will certainly help reduce the risks.

“When the windows are closed, SARS-CoV-2 (in fine aerosol particles) accumulates in the car cabin. With each new cough, the concentration builds up with no significant dilution happening.

But even cracking one window open just 3 inches can keep this at bay,” explained Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Joseph Allen and Jack Spegler, and Portland State University’s Richard Corsi in a USA Today opinion piece.

They also mentioned that you shouldn’t keep the car in the “recirculating air” mode is using air conditioning while driving.