Brown University trashed air purifiers that were in the student dorms. 

I have heard they were taken out stealth-like with no explanation, from locked offices of professors, and people were told air purifiers are “no longer being necessary” – which still doesn’t explain why they’d put functional appliances in the garbage.

‘Inconvenient,’ ‘wasteful,’ ‘frustrating’: Students react to removal of paper towels, air purifiers from on-campus housing. Students cite concerns about hygiene, accessibility, sustainability. By Aniyah Nelson University News Editor – October 11, 2023  Air purifiers have also disappeared from University dormitories. While walking through campus in July, Christopher Vanderpool ’24 stumbled upon an unexpected scene: dozens of air purifiers in a dumpster.

Ashish Jha is the Brown University Dean of the School of Public Health, Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice. And when Ashish Jha was the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, he said we should adopt air filtration and ventilation as a pandemic measure and going forward for infectious disease and other health reasons.

In September 2022, he was at a National Association of Manufacturers telling everyone that indoor air cleaning is the future of pandemic mitigation, infection control, and good for general health. 

Dr. Ashish Jha on the Next Phase of Pandemic Response – By NAM News Room September 27, 2022

Air quality: Last, Jha cited the importance of improving air quality to combat all respiratory infections, whether COVID-19, influenza or RSV (a common respiratory virus).

  • Most Americans spend 90% of their time indoors, but don’t really think about the quality of the air they’re breathing, he noted.
  • Yet, that air quality helps determine your likelihood of getting sick, and even “makes a difference to your cognition,” he pointed out. Research shows that improving air quality raised students’ test scores in schools and reduced worker absences.
  • We can improve indoor air quality by upgrading filters, improving air exchanges with the outdoors or using air purifiers, he advised.

The question that needs to be asked is who made this decision to put everyone at this university at greater health risk?