Filling Critical Science Gaps: EPA Office of Research and Development’s Response to COVID-19 (Part 1): Sharing EPA's COVID 19 Research Results (Part 2)
In the early days of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the virus was spreading rapidly, the main routes of transmission were uncertain, little was known about how to attenuate its spread, and mortality rates were climbing. The U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) took extraordinary steps to establish a COVID-19 research program with the goal of promptly filling critical science gaps to help inform the national response during the pandemic. ORD’s multidisciplinary scientific expertise and institutional knowledge were critical to addressing the environmental challenges associated with the pandemic. ORD’s research program involved multiple areas, including: communications and outreach; development of a rapid detection method; new cleaning and disinfection procedures; aerosol treatment; wastewater monitoring; salivary antibody testing; aerosol transport modeling; optimizing the performance of face coverings; and creation of the EPA Facility Status Dashboard (EPA COVID Dashboard). ORD researchers rapidly pivoted their research activities to establish new research focused on the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative virus for COVID-19, to protect public health globally. Each component of the COVID-19 research program resulted in innovative contributions to improve the knowledge base related to this virus; this article highlights ORD’s COVID-19 research program.