The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic

Glycol vapors, explained.

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May 11, 2026 5:15pm EDT

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Despite widespread fears about the recent hantavirus outbreak, the next pandemic will almost certainly come to us the way Covid-19 did – through the air. For all that we’ve learned since 2020 about preventing and fighting respiratory viruses, the best tool in our public health arsenal may be glycol vapors, chemical compounds that can shut down all sorts of airborne problems before they have a chance to affect us.

As Shayna Korol details in her recent article on the topic, we’ve known about the disease-fighting potential of glycol vapors for almost a century, but they’ve never been deployed at scale. Now, however, researchers are looking at these compounds anew to determine whether they can be used safely and effectively. Shayna speaks with some of those scientists about what they’re investigating and what they hope to find. But she also dives into the history of glycol vapors to explore why their potentially-transformative properties have gone ignored for so long.

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—Jacob Brogan, deputy editor, Future Perfect