In the war against Covid-19, some of the most old-fashioned solutions have been the most effective:

Wear a mask
Self-quarantine if you have symptoms
Take activities outdoors

Should the simple act of opening windows be added to the list? https://trib.al/U54s2Zy 

America uses more energy for air conditioning than all other nations in the world put together.

The unusual practice of living and working in indoor spaces is receiving a closer look as the virus tears through some of the hottest parts of the U.S. https://trib.al/U54s2Zy 

In the nineteenth century, a growing number of people lived in cramped and airless city quarters.

As disease ran rampant, the solution was simple: better ventilation through “natural disinfectants” – fresh air and sunshine – that countered viral outbreaks https://trib.al/U54s2Zy 

During the Civil War, doctors noticed that wounded soldiers treated in open-air settings had higher rates of survival than those in cramped hospitals

In time, medical advice helped drive reforms instituted in the nation’s cities https://trib.al/U54s2Zy 

The continuing threat of tuberculosis added to the growing obsession with fresh air.

Middle-class Americans embraced the idea that the only way to prevent the respiratory disease – and perhaps even cure it — was to spend as much time as possible outdoors https://trib.al/U54s2Zy 

The idea of a “sleeping porch” – typically, a well-ventilated, screened area on the second floor where residents could spend the night – became fashionable.

So, too, did verandas, bungalows and enormous porches designed to catch a breeze https://trib.al/U54s2Zy 

In the 1920s, a group of engineers decided to tame nature – and encourage Americans to shut the windows.

Willis Carrier, a textile engineer who worked in factories, who coined the phrase “air conditioning” https://trib.al/U54s2Zy 

Not everyone embraced the new technology.

So-called “open-air crusaders” warned that no matter how sophisticated the machinery, there was simply no substitute for open windows for discouraging the spread of germs https://trib.al/U54s2Zy 

Critics of climate control continued to argue that mechanically processed air was less healthy and more dangerous during viral outbreaks.

The engineers won in the end, with air conditioning enjoying broad acceptance in the U.S. by the end of World War II https://trib.al/U54s2Zy 

Our love of air conditioning fueled a dramatic shift of population to the Sun Belt. Between 1940 and 1980:

The northeast only grew by 41%
The Sun Belt grew by 112%
https://trib.al/U54s2Zy 

Viruses don’t normally thrive in hot and humid weather.

But if everyone sits inside dry, climate-controlled environments sealed off from the outside, we’re more or less giving Covid what it needs to reproduce
https://trib.al/U54s2Zy