If you're planning to watch the San Francisco 49ers play the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship Game this weekend, a health expert has an easy tip to make indoor celebrations COVID-19 friendly.
"Outside is always the safest spot," Dr. Kim Prather, Director of the NSF Center for Aerosol Impacts on Chemistry of the Environment at the University of California, San Diego, told KCBS Radio's "Ask An Expert" on Friday. "But if you're inside, you want to be in a well ventilated location, a place where the doors and windows open."
For football fans who don't want to face the cold this weekend, Prather advised building a Corsi-Rosenthal Box: a low-cost, easy to assemble and effective air-filtration device.
It pulls the virus right out of the air, she said.
"Adding filtration reduce risks of inhaling SARS-CoV-2 and it doesn't have to cost exorbitant amounts," Prather wrote in a Twitter post promoting the DIY Corsi Box. The materials — a box fan, MERV-13 filters, cardboard and duct tape — cost around $70.
Instructions, adapted from a UCSD Public Health guide, are as follows:
1. Arrange box parts with the airflow pointing inward. The top is the fan, the sides are the filters and the bottom is cardboard.
2. Orient the filter and fans so that airflow is in through the sides and out through the top.
3. Corners of the box fan can create "back flow," so to reduce this it is advised to create a circular shroud out of cardboard.
4. Use duct tape to connect the parts and create an airtight seal.
Further instructions and information on the benefits of the Corsi-Rosenthal Box are available at the UCSD Public Health and COVID-19 website. The box is designed to last six months.
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