During a Facebook Live chat with Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, Fauci discussed the unique problem that sharing vehicles with unfamiliar drivers presents during the pandemic. “When I’m in a car now, I keep the window open,” he told Raimondo. “Even though the person who’s driving the car and me both have masks on, I keep the masks on and keep the windows open.” Multiple experts have noted that rolling your windows down is key in any car ride with someone outside of your household amid coronavirus. “Sharing a car is one of the highest-risk interactions I have had to look at in my life,” Erin Bromage, PhD, a biology professor who researches infectious diseases at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, told Good Morning America recently. “In cars and ride sharing, we want the windows open,” he said. “It makes things safer.“ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb In USA Today, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Joseph Allen and Jack Spegler and Portland State University’s Richard Corsi also warned that “when the windows are closed, SARS-CoV-2 (in fine aerosol particles that cause COVID-19) accumulates in the car cabin. With each new cough, the concentration builds up with no significant dilution happening. But even cracking one window open just 3 inches can keep this at bay.” RELATED: For more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also released recommendations for riding in cars during the pandemic. Besides sitting in the back seat in a cab or ride share, the agency also suggests going one step further and turning off the air recycler. “Avoid using the recirculated air option for the car’s ventilation,” the agency notes. They add that you should instead “use the car’s vents to bring in fresh outside air and/or lower the vehicle windows.” This will bring in fresh air from outdoors instead of recycling the same potentially contaminated air around the tight space. And for more on how to stay safe behind the wheel, check out 7 Mistakes You’re Making Every Time You Get in Your Car.
