The Hucksters Con The Con Man: Viral Inactivation In A Phoenix Church Ain't All That

Trump's Tulsa rally having proven a disappointment (supposedly because of ticket sales from people hoping to minimize attendance), he moved on to a Phoenix church. Said church assured its membership that they had a state-of-the-art air purification system:

June 23, 2020 – On Sunday we made a post for our congregation to inform them we are doing everything we can to foster the cleanest, safest environment as we resume church services. We have heard Coronavirus and COVID used interchangeably. Our statement regarding the CleanAir EXP units used the word COVID when we should have said Coronavirus or COVID surrogates. We hope to alleviate any confusion we may have caused. We have done our best to direct all CleanAir EXP questions to the company executives who are best suited to answer and have provided the following clarity; CleanAir EXP is at the forefront of air and surface purification testing and technology – it is our understanding that they tested with a third-party Certified Biosafety Laboratory on the best coronavirus surrogates available. The company found that their technology leads to a 99.9% elimination of airborne coronavirus surrogates. So while they do not eliminate COVID-19, their coronavirus surrogate testing results are significant for the future of clean air.

We’re proud to be their customer! This is one of many examples of how we’re committed to fostering the cleanest, safest environment for our church congregation and facility event rentals.

So, how do it work?

When particulate levels reach an unacceptable amount, the sensor activates the EXP Purification Unit installed in the air duct of your HVAC system. ... These high-energy oxygen ions help cluster particulates together. This clustering effect allows your existing air filter to capture microscopic particles that would normally pass through.

In other words, the system generates ozone that is recirculated through the HVAC system (which can't possibly harm asthmatics at all) only when the sensors detect too many particulates in the air. In other words, by the time the system kicks in, viral particles have already spread.

What's ironic here is that a recent Nature paper found that far-UV light inactivates SARS-CoV-2 analogues (beta-HCoV-OC43, a virus that causes the common cold, and alpha HCoV-229E). This process "would result in ~90% viral inactivation in ~8 minutes", which isn't great for enclosed public spaces, but better than nothing. The manufacturer, Ushio, appears to be the first to market with a far-UV lamp of any kind for public space use. Something like this might make a substantial difference in disease spread, but once again, we don't have solid evidence that's the case. Inactivation in the lab is one thing, in indoors human settings another. The Phoenix church looks like they got conned by someone repurposing an anti-allergen system as sterilizing. (In fairness, ozone will inactivate viruses, but the time appears to be much longer [47-223 minutes] than for far-UV light.)