Is Air Filtration the Best Public Health Intervention Against Respiratory Viruses?

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Welcome to Impact Factor, your weekly dose of commentary on a new medical study. I'm Dr F. Perry Wilson of the Yale School of Medicine.

When it comes to the public health fight against respiratory viruses — COVID, flu, RSV,  and so on— it has always struck me as strange how staunchly basically any intervention is opposed. Masking was, of course, the prototypical entrenched warfare of opposing ideologies, with advocates pointing to studies suggesting the efficacy of masking to prevent transmission and advocating for broad masking recommendations, and detractors citing studies that suggested masks were ineffective and characterizing masking policies as fascist overreach. I'll admit that I was always perplexed by this a bit, as that particular intervention seemed so benign — a bit annoying, I guess, but not crazy.

I have come to appreciate what I call status quo bias, which is the tendency to reject any policy, advice, or intervention that would force you, as an individual, to change your usual behavior. We just don't like to do that. It has made me think that the most successful public health interventions might be the ones that take the individual out of the loop.