Carpooling in a pandemic: UMass physicist finds best way to circulate fresh air
Updated Dec 09, 2020;
Posted Dec 09, 2020
Opening the nearest car window might not be the best way to reduce COVID-19 infection risk, according to a UMass Amherst researcher. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)AP
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AMHERST If you find yourself in a car with someone outside your household during the COVID-19 pandemic, your instinct may be to roll down your window. But that might not be the safest option to protect yourself from infection.
Rolling down all the windows isn’t feasible during cold or wet weather. Instead, a University of Massachusetts Amherst physicist found reason to believe opening the front window on the right side and the rear window on the left side might best protect the driver and a backseat passenger from the hundreds of aerosol particles released in every human breath.