After two months of having my groceries delivered, I returned (masked) to shopping in the supermarket and drug store about three weeks ago. I also resumed using the drive-thru and even picking up food at a restaurant. I’m also planning on getting my car repaired but that’s contingent upon what happens next week. Even though cases are on the decline now, I don’t think this window of opportunity is going to be open much longer. My state ended the mask requirement on the 14th just as the Omicron B variant arrived and I have a feeling I’m going to go back to living like a recluse again very soon.
I guess I don’t have to wear a mask into this local restaurant, which was recommended to us. From their website:
“We make indoor dining safer for our guests with UV Light technology combined with our Big Ass Fans that kills 99.9% COVID-19 and other airborne pathogens!”
Yes, that sounds safe. Undoubtedly the Big Ass Fans cut up the infectious particles into tiny harmless fragments. 
That might work. UV does kill covid, flu, and many other pathogens. The point of the big ass fans is to pump the air through the killing chamber that contains the UV light. If it circulates the air frequently enough, it might keep the viral load similar to “outdoors in a light breeze”.
I’m hoping that covid leads to a lot of improvements in HVAC in restaurants and shops, including good filters and maybe supplemental UV treatment, as well.
…while circulating a fine mist of droplets rapidly around the restaurant?
I should be proud that a local firm makes Big Ass Fans, but have reservations about whether this particular device has been tested for pathogen elimination under rigorous experimental and real world conditions.
There’s been a bunch of work with similar things. You’re right that if you are sitting immediately “downwind” of someone who is infected, it might increase your risk, but i bet it significantly reduces the viral load in the place overall, and is a benefit to most of the diners if there’s one or a small number of infectious persons there.
Anyway, yeah, I’m hoping we get more testing and certification of devices like that. One that i saw that looked promising had a whole false ceiling with UV above the ceiling, and the fans basically pumped air “up”.
Just in case it wasn’t clear, big ass fans isn’t a description, it’s a brand name:
I think I agree with @puzzlegal. The Big Ass fan has a UV light attachment that is directed upward. If you reverse the fan, it will create an updraft and start sucking air toward the UV light. If you have more than one fan and they’re big ass enough, quite a bit of air will be circulating through the UV lights in a certain amount of time. It may not be as good as being outside on a breezy day, but it’s gotta be a step toward that.
Well, what do ya know? An independent study was done. Too bad there’s not more media about this.
Made by the same company as Big Ass Ham?
Whatever “independent tests” were carried out by this lab, I find no peer-reviewed study in the scientific literature backing the report. And who paid for it?
Also, how meaningful is it that SARS-Cov-2 levels were supposedly reduced above the fan? Restaurant tables typically aren’t mounted on the ceiling. What are the levels of infectious particles at ground level?
There’s a major difference between a concept that has a reasonable-sounding basis, and one with proven efficacy in a real-life setting.
The testing company looks legit, so I doubt something shady is going on. And it looks like their approach to study it is pretty sound. They aerosolized the at high titer of virus in a chamber with the Big Ass fan. I’m not sure how they sample, but it seems like their chamber method is used all the time. I assume they sample above the fan because that’s how their chamber is designed to test for aerosols. It doesn’t matter where the sampling takes place because the small droplets are circulating throughout the chamber during the whole experiment. Since UVC inactivates in seconds, their inactivation timeframe is demonstrating circulation of the virus.
Anyway, the fans are just a plus. Aerosols float up so simply directing UVC light toward the ceiling probably would help a lot.
Hell, I’d take a Big Ass UVC fan over the stupid plexiglass they scattered throughout our lab. What a waste of money.
It doesn’t have to be “something shady” for the test to be an unrealistic assessment of the device’s capability. We don’t go out to dine in a small enclosed chamber any more than we are seated near the ceiling.
Again, the lack of a peer-reviewed, published (and preferably replicated) study should be cause for skepticism.
Faith in the germ-killing effectiveness of the Big-Ass Fan based on this “evidence” is something I’d expect from the Judy Tenuta Center for Epidemiology.