This is an account that should be heard of an important struggle: the struggle of a large group of experts who came together at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to warn the world about the risk of airborne transmission and the consequences of ignoring it. We alerted the World Health Organization about the potential significance of the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the urgent need to control it, but our concerns were dismissed. Here we describe how this happened and the consequences. We hope that by reporting this story we can raise awareness of the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and the need to be open to new evidence, and to prevent it from happening again. Acknowledgement of an issue, and the emergence of new evidence related to it, is the first necessary step towards finding effective mitigation solutions.

An Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) label (or 'IEQ profile' as it is called in the Netherlands) has been developed in the Netherlands specifically for homes. The label is meant to be used in conjunction with the standard energy label and the graphic design is set up accordingly. The IEQ label expresses the 'risk level' for eight distinct IEQ aspects: thermal comfort in winter, overheating in summer, air exchange (ventilation), moisture & mould, combustion gasses (from heating appliances), daylight penetration, noise from installations and noise insulation. The method for the IEQ label has been recently published in the Netherlands and a pilot project has been carried out in which the first 11 homes in the Netherlands have been provided with this new IEQ label. Most people do not consider IEQ when e.g. buying or renovating a house. The IEQ label visualizes information about comfort and health quality of a home to (future) inhabitants. It thereby assists them in making informed decisions about comfort and health related issues when improving the energy performance.

In the Netherlands a first version of an IEQ label (or 'IEQ profile' as it is called in the Netherlands) has been developed specifically for dwellings. The IEQ label will be introduced on the Dutch market end of 2009. It is voluntary and it is meant to be used in conjunction with the standard (EPBD) energy label. The IEQ label expresses the 'risk level' for 8 distinct IEQ aspects (thermal comfort in winter, thermal comfort in summer, ventilation performance, moisture & mould, exhaust gases of boilers and household appliances, daylight penetration, installation noise and sound insulation). The risk level is expressed (for each aspect) with a 'horizontal traffic light' with scores varying from green to orange to red to red with an exclamation mark.