Emergency Deployment of In-Room Air Filtration Systems for Pandemic Resilience

A previous study concluded that if confronted with a severe airborne pandemic, ‘Pandemic-Proof’ Personal Protective Equipment (P4E) alone would be inadequate to protect the world’s vital workforce. Central HVAC upgrades are not a viable remedy either, as fan and duct constraints limit achievable clean-air delivery. In-room air filtration therefore emerges as a practical pathway for rapid response. This study assesses how fast in-room air-filtration could be applied to critical infrastructure at the global scale. Using universal occupation standards and region-specific manufacturing and repurposing models, we construct scale-up curves for improvised filtration systems (Corsi-Rosenthal (CR) boxes and coal baghouse-filter repurposing), targeting a 10× increase in clean air delivery over COVID-19-era guidance. Findings indicate that reliance on these solutions alone is inadequate for rapid global protection. Global coverage requires approximately five years under realistic assumptions. Northern America, Northern Europe, and Eastern Europe approach near-complete protection within approximately 1 year, whereas most regions face substantially longer timelines. With the solutions studied, manufacturing capacity is the dominant source of protection, even where repurposing is maximized. These results imply that preparedness must include pre-event research into scaling alternative technologies such as ultraviolet and glycol vapours.