Creating an Infection Resilient Environment

Creating an Infection Resilient Environment

The pandemic highlighted how important the indoor environment is for transmission of infection. Airborne transmission is now accepted as the dominant mode for COVID-19, but there are multiple questions that remain around the specific mechanisms for pathogen transmission and how to determine which mitigations are most effective.

Modelling is an important strategy for understanding the factors that influence risks. Simple models such as the Wells-Riley approach are widely used to make the case for interventions such as ventilation. However, transmission involves a complex chain of events that such models struggle to capture. The transmission process is determined by spatial and transient interactions of physics, biology and chemistry as well as human behaviours. Measuring real-world infection outcomes is challenging, and even where it is possible, it is difficult to unpick the relative importance of different components.

Despite all of this complexity, policy makers and practitioners need evidence that can be easily translated into advice. This talk considers how we can model the processes involved in transmission, where we have evidence and where there are gaps. It considers the challenge of trading off simple advice with complex realities and explores how much we can provide effective and practical protection from transmission in the built environment.

Professor Cath Noakes OBE is the Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor Research and Innovation and Professor of Environmental Engineering for Buildings at the University of Leeds, UK. She is a chartered engineer with substantial experience leading research into buildings and health, particularly around ventilation, air quality and infection control. She has worked closely with policy particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, including contributing to UK SAGE committee, NHS guidance on healthcare environments, WHO groups, and work with the Royal Academy of Engineering.