When Aporva Mandavili wanted to write about ventilation in schools, she knew exactly where

to start.

A music room.

A place where people are packed together, breathing the same air, singing loudly.

So she went to see Keith Oxman, a music teacher at East High School in Denver.

He has been at the school for a very long time.

He's in his mid-60s and he's the oldest staff member there.

He's nominated for a Grammy and he's just a very cool person.

Aporva covers science and health for the New York Times, which for the past three years

has meant mostly writing about COVID.

As we know from your reporting and many other people's reporting, singing, music, particularly

in poorly ventilated areas, is a way that COVID can spread easily.

So what were Keith Oxman's concerns when he was faced with the COVID pandemic?

The reason I wanted to see the music room was precisely for the reasons you just mentioned,

because music rooms are sort of ideal reading grounds for the virus to thrive and spread.

And Keith Oxman's music room is sort of a tight space.

It's a reasonably big music room, but the ceilings are very low and there was a lot of

equipment and they had, you know, a lot of stands and chairs and the windows were closed

and sort of felt a little bit crowded in there and he said, you know, there are all these

things you're supposed to do to make the risk lower, like open the windows, but the windows

don't open.

It's hard to have fans on because then the sheet music starts flying around.

...