Packing Heat in the Fight Against COVID-19

Credit: Courtesy | Date Taken: 03/17/2021
During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has quickly and safely transported COVID-19-infected warfighters and civilians by aircraft to hospitals for care. Inside the aircraft, patients rested in biocontainment systems to prevent aerosolized severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, from infecting the aircrew and contaminating the aircraft. If aircraft contamination were to occur, the U.S. Air Force can use a modified Joint Biological Agent Decontamination System (JBADS) process, referred to as JBADS Lite, for hot-air decontamination. JBADS Lite provides rapid, effective decontamination of an aircraft’s interior for SARS-CoV-2 and other enveloped RNA viruses. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s (DTRA) Chemical and Biological Technologies Department, in its role as the Joint Science and Technology Office (JSTO), generated data that allowed for successful implementation of JBADS Lite.