A common area at the Rochester Institute of Technology campus in Rochester, N.Y., in January.Credit…Libby March for The New York TimesWith the pandemic entering a new phase in the United States marked by fewer precautions and the rise of the even more transmissible Omicron subvariant BA.2, the Biden administration has begun stressing the importance of mitigating the risk of indoor aerosol transmission, the primary driver of the pandemic.The Environmental Protection Agency recently issued expert guidance to building managers, contractors and business owners, with two pages of recommendations that codify the best practices on ventilation, air filtration and air disinfection from academic experts and federal agencies of the last two years. The agency said that implementation could be underwritten with federal funds from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that President Biden signed into law a year ago.Dr. Alondra Nelson, chief of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said last week the guidance was part of an initiative called the Clean Air in Buildings Challenge. In a blog post titled, “Let’s Clear the Air on Covid,” she cited the guidance and said, “Now, we all need to work collectively to make our friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers aware of what we can do or ask for to make being indoors together safer.”“For decades, Americans have demanded that clean water flow from our taps and pollution limits be placed on our smokestacks and tailpipes,” she wrote in …
