"EPA and indoor air quality experts are pushing ventilation and filtration as a key means to keep kids healthy during the pandemic as other measures to stop the spread of Covid-19 have become increasingly polarized.
“The pandemic has provided us with a defining moment on indoor air quality for schools,” said EPA’s Tracy Washington Enger, who works in the agency’s Indoor Environments Division.
Enger was speaking during an EPA-hosted webinar that aimed to help school officials at the local level “make the case” to school districts that they should invest in air quality improvements and ventilation, through upgrades to heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and replacing filters, among other strategies.
The training comes as a string of states, including New York, New Jersey and Delaware, have announced they will soon lift mask mandates in schools, putting pressure on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though CDC Director Rochelle Walensky as recently as this week stressed the importance of “masking in areas of high and substantial transmission,” the agency is reportedly considering updating its guidelines for which metrics states should use when considering lifting mask mandates, and whether such guidelines should still rely as much on case and transmission rates or incorporate more information on hospital capacity data."
Advertisement 
