Misconceptions about weather and seasonality impact COVID-19 response


Date:
August 27, 2020
Source:
Georgetown University Medical Center
Summary:
Misconceptions about the way climate and weather impact exposure
and transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,
create false confidence and have adversely shaped risk perceptions,
say researchers.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Misconceptions about the way climate and weather impact exposure and transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, create false confidence and have adversely shaped risk perceptions, say a team of
Georgetown University researchers.


========================================================================== "Future scientific work on this politically-fraught topic needs a more
careful approach," write the scientists in a "Comment" published today
in Nature Communications.

The authors include global change biologist Colin J. Carlson, PhD, an
assistant professor at Georgetown's Center for Global Health Science
and Security; senior author Sadie Ryan, PhD, a medical geographer at the University of Florida; Georgetown disease ecologist Shweta Bansal, PhD;
and Ana C. R. Gomez, a graduate student at UCLA.

The research team says current messaging on social media and elsewhere "obscures key nuances" of the science around COVID-19 and seasonality.

"Weather probably influences COVID-19 transmission, but not at a scale sufficient to outweigh the effects of lockdowns or re-openings in
populations," the authors write.

The authors strongly discourage policy be tailored to current
understandings of the COVID-climate link, and suggest a few key points:
1. No human-settled area in the world is protected from COVID-19
transmission by virtue of weather, at any point in the year.

2. Many scientists expect COVID-19 to become seasonal in the long term,
conditional on a significant level of immunity, but that condition
may be unmet in some regions, depending on the success of outbreak
containment.

3. All pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions are
currently
believed to have a stronger impact on transmission over space and
time than any environmental driver.

"With current scientific data, COVID-19 interventions cannot currently
be planned around seasonality," the authors conclude.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Georgetown_University_Medical_Center. Note: Content may be edited for
style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Colin J. Carlson, Ana C. R. Gomez, Shweta Bansal, Sadie J. Ryan.

Misconceptions about weather and seasonality must not misguide
COVID-19 response. Nature Communications, 2020; 11 (1) DOI:
10.1038/s41467-020- 18150-z ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200827101814.htm

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