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When it's cold outside, is it safe to bring a socially distanced gathering into your house if windows are open for a short bit, then shut so indoor temps don't plummet.

When it's cold outside, is it safe to bring a socially distanced gathering into your house if windows are open for a short bit, then shut so indoor temps don't plummet?

If I want to try indoor socializing it'll be too cold to keep windows wide open for a long stretch.

Would it help to open a window or door for a minute or two every so often.

Is there a way to use open windows and air filters and other strategies to make the indoors more like the outdoors.

Before you go down that road, Sonali Advani, an assistant professor of medicine at Duke University, warns that there are limitations to focusing on ventilation via open windows as a way to prevent transmission.

Those latter two measures — masks and distancing — are probably more important than just ventilation alone, Advani explains.

If you do end up meeting friends indoors — and Advani says you should seriously think about that decision because of the heightened risks of transmission associated with inside spaces — she's not sure how meaningful opening the windows for a short spell every 15-20 minutes would be when it comes to reducing risk.

Ventilation itself is only really helpful, she argues, when it's highly robust — windows open on both sides of a room to allow for cross-ventilation and an open, airy space with very few people, for example?

Stephen Morse, an epidemiology professor at Columbia University, agrees— but adds that some ventilation is probably "better than none." So if you feel inclined to blast open a window in the middle of your North Dakota weather, go for it.

For instance: "You can't really tell if the virus is in the air just at the moment when the window is not open — in which case, you haven't gotten much benefit."?

"Opening windows and doors intermittently may have some effect on helping with creating more air flow, but the specifics of each room and situation would be different," Harvard Medical School physician Abraar Karan says.

But one thing is clear, Morse says: "If people are willing to wear masks and commit to social distancing [inside], that will help quite a bit — even [indoors with windows closed] in cold weather.".