Beyond Plexiglass: Scientists Say This Simple Solution Could Keep VP Debate Safer

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Workers clean plexiglass dividers installed at the University of Utah in preparation for the debate between Sen. Kamala Harris and Vice President Pence.

Kim Raff/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Soprano Allison Hughes participates in research led by University of Maryland professors Jelena Srebric and Donald Milton into ways to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission during public events such as musical performances or political debates.

Robert Herschbach/University of Maryland

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Soprano Allison Hughes participates in research led by University of Maryland professors Jelena Srebric and Donald Milton into ways to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission during public events such as musical performances or political debates.

Robert Herschbach/University of Maryland

Jelena Srebric, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland, says, «The best way to really protect people is to remove viral particles at the source. Surgical masks work, because they would help block some of the aerosols generated when people talk. But as Milton notes, masks are not ideal in a debate setting, in part because some of the audience may be lip reading.

That’s where box fans come in.

A simple, cheap, store-bought solution using HEPA air filters duct-taped onto box fans could dramatically reduce the amount of virus that accumulates in the air, Milton and Srebric say.

The idea, they note, originated with Richard Corsi, an indoor air quality expert at Portland State University. Basically, you take a box fan and duct-tape a HEPA air filter to the front of it. Then you place a fan on either side of the speaker. One box fan would be blowing toward the speaker, while the other fan would be blowing away from the speaker.

«The idea is that you can clean the air that is coming towards you, so you remove as much particles as possible with the HEPA filter and fan that is coming to you. And then as you’re breathing out, another fan and HEPA filter takes your air in to filter it, Srebric says.

Srebric and Milton tested this setup last week using choir singers, and they found it could reduce the concentration of particles in a room by 50%.

The researchers have contacted the presidential debate commission and both presidential campaigns to recommend they adopt their duct-taped box fan and filter contraption onstage.