Join Indoor Air 2024’s Conference Countdown Challenge

(posting on behalf of Dr. Karen Dannemiller)   The Indoor Air 2024 conference from the International Society for Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISAIQ) will take place in beautiful Honolulu, HI.  Have your research highlighted as part of Indoor Air 2024’s Conference Countdown Challenge!   Starting July 10th, 2023, submissions of images related to the conference themes …

Job posting: Tenure-Track Faculty Position in Environmental Microbiology at Virginia Tech

Job Posting:   The Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at Virginia Tech invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position in environmental engineering at the rank of Assistant Professor. We are seeking candidates motivated to contribute to a collegial, interdisciplinary community in several core mission areas of the university. The …

#COVID19 Journal Club “Evidence of Long-Distance Droplet Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by Direct Air Flow in a Restaurant in Korea”

This one has been getting a lot of popular media attention… and really the title says it all “Evidence of Long-Distance Droplet Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by Direct Air Flow in a Restaurant in Korea”.  This study describes a transmission that took place at over 20 feet in only 5 minutes… both problematic considering the standard …

#COVID19 Journal Club: “Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 RNA contamination of inanimate surfaces and virus viability in a health care emergency unit”

Another quick post here.  “Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 RNA contamination of inanimate surfaces and virus viability in a health care emergency unit.” One of several studies that have found the presence of viral RNA in a healthcare setting, but who were unable to culture virus from surfaces there.  Abstract below: Objectives To detect …

#COVID19 Journal Club: “Lack of SARS-CoV-2 RNA environmental contamination in a tertiary referral hospital for infectious diseases in Northern Italy”

Just a quick one here… a study looking for viral RNA in an intensively cleaned healthcare study showing very little detectable RNA in shared spaces in the hospital (in contrast to patient areas).  No viral culturing which is pretty normal for these short notes.  “Lack of SARS-CoV-2 RNA environmental contamination in a tertiary referral hospital …

#COVID19 Preprint Journal Club: “Wastewater Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 as a Predictive Metric of Positivity Rate for a Major Metropolis”

More wastewater sampling work, “Wastewater Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 as a Predictive Metric of Positivity Rate for a Major Metropolis“.  This one is a larger-scale study in a big city that found wastewater spikes in SARS-CoV-2 to present clinical positives by 2 weeks which is a huge lead time and of major significance for getting a …

#COVID19 Preprint Journal Club: “Distribution of SARS-CoV-2 RNA Signal in a Home with COVID-19 Positive Occupants”

A nice article by several of our colleagues from the MoBE project days.   “Distribution of SARS-CoV-2 RNA Signal in a Home with COVID-19 Positive Occupants” does just what it says in the tile, looks at the signal from SARS-CoV-2 in a home… long after the occupants were determined positive.   They sampled two months after the …

#COVID-19 Journal Club: “The wastewater microbiome: A novel insight for COVID-19 surveillance”

This is a bit more up our alley!  “The wastewater microbiome: A novel insight for COVID-19 surveillance” doesn’t look directly at the virus but at the changes in the wastewater microbiome that might proceed detection of SARS-CoV-2.  The authors claim to observe such changes which could potentially be really useful.  We already know that wastewater …

#COVID-19 Preprint Journal Club: “Longitudinal monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on high-touch surfaces in a community setting”

A break from wastewater articles!  “Longitudinal monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on high-touch surfaces in a community setting“. There’s not actually been a ton of articles about fomites recently… this appears less and less likely to be a source of transmission for SARS-CoV-2 although we certainly wouldn’t want to rule it out.  It is, after all, …