Is Your Air Conditioner Keeping You Safe From Covid?
Air conditioners aren't a replacement for social distancing, but used appropriately they can actually help prevent the spread of viruses.
Time to crank up the AC … or not?
Photographer: Pat Carroll/New York Daily News Archive via Getty Images
It’s summertime in America, and while there may or may not be a baseball season, some things don’t change. Hamburgers are still getting grilled, trips to national parks are being plotted and air conditioners are cranked on full blast.
That last point is taking on new meaning as the country continues its reopening in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Even New York City — the region hardest hit by the pandemic and the last in the country to emerge from lockdown — is on track to allow people to interact again in non-essential indoor venues starting Monday. Barber shops, retail stores and offices will be able to reopen, with some restrictions and safeguards, and the HVAC systems that keep them cool and ventilated will come whirring back to life. Chances are you didn’t give much thought to those HVAC systems in the before-times, as long as they appeared to be working. Now, with a potentially deadly virus that spreads via airborne droplets still circulating around the country, you might be wondering, are air conditioners safe?