给家里买一台空气净化器是个好主意吗?

As people spend more time together indoors with the changing of the seasons, could an air cleaner provide an added layer of protection against the transmission of the coronavirus by removing a percentage of viral particles from the air?

随着季节的变化，人们花更多的时间呆在室内，空气净化器能否通过从空气中去除一定比例的病毒颗粒，增加一层保护，防止冠状病毒的传播?

Remember how hard it was to buy hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes back in March? Not many people were stockpiling portable air cleaners back then. But engineers and doctors say these devices could play an important role in protecting your family from COVID-19 — especially as people start spending more time indoors as outdoor air temperatures fall in the Northern Hemisphere.

还记得3月份买洗手液和消毒剂有多困难吗?那时并没有多少人囤积便携式空气净化器。但工程师和医生说，这些设备可能在保护你的家人免受COVID-19感染方面发挥重要作用，尤其是在北半球室外气温下降，人们开始更多地呆在室内的情况下。

"It's a relatively easy way to get clean air in a place where people are in close contact," says Joseph Gardner Allen, an associate professor of exposure assessment science who directs the Healthy Buildings program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "It's a simple plug and play solution in that area." (He bought one in March.)

“在人们密切接触的地方获得清洁空气是一种相对容易的方法，”哈佛大学T.H.Chan公共卫生学院健康建筑项目负责人、接触评估科学副教授约瑟夫·戈登·艾伦说。“这是一个简单的即插即用解决方案”。(他在3月份买了一台。)

With new attention on the role that aerosolized microdroplets could play in the spread of COVID-19, should you rush out to buy a portable air cleaner for home use?

随着雾化的微滴可能在COVID-19传播中发挥的作用得到新的关注，你是否应该冲出去买一台家用的便携式空气净化器?

The frustrating short answer is, "It depends."

令人沮丧的简短回答是:“视情况而定。”

It's accepted that the coronavirus can move in multiple ways, though less is understood about how each contributes to transmission of the disease. Those possible transmission methods include short-range airborne particles, ballistic droplets from coughing or sneezing, long-range airborne particles and contaminated surfaces.

人们普遍认为，冠状病毒可以以多种方式传播，但人们对每种传播方式对疾病传播的影响知之甚少。这些可能的传播方式包括短程空气传播的颗粒、咳嗽或打喷嚏产生的飞沫、远距离空气传播的颗粒和受污染的表面。

Portable air cleaners can limit the spread of the virus via long-range airborne particles by capturing most of those particles in a HEPA filter and cleaning the air at a rate of up to six times per hour.

便携式空气净化器可以通过高效空气过滤器捕捉大部分这些颗粒，并以每小时6次的速度清洁空气，从而限制病毒通过长距离空气传播。

So, in the right circumstances, portable air cleaners offer an additional layer of protection.

因此，在适当的情况下，便携式空气净化器提供了额外的一层保护。

If you're living by yourself and you don't have guests over, it's not going to add any protection.

如果你是一个人住，没有客人，这不会增加任何保护措施。

But if you occasionally host a family member who works on the front lines, or if you return home after an exposure on campus, the benefits are likely worth the cost. And if someone in your house gets sick with COVID-19? Definitely worth the investment.

但是，如果你偶尔接待一个在前线工作的家庭成员，或者你在校园里呆了一段时间后回到家里，这些好处很可能是值得的。如果你家里有人感染了COVID-19?绝对值得投资。