COVID-19 Thread 4/23/2020 (Researchers Suggest Temperature and Humidity Affect Virus Spread)

Researchers at the Institute of Virology at the University of Maryland suggest that there is a relationship between climate and how efficiently coronavirus spreads in communities.

https://www.medschool.umaryland.edu/news/2020/Researchers-Predict-Potential-Spread-and-Seasonality-for-COVID-19-Based-on-Climate-Where-Virus-Appears-to-Thrive.html

‘In a new paper published on the open-data site SSRN, the researchers found that all cities experiencing significant outbreaks of COVID-19 have very similar winter climates with an average temperature of 41 to 52 degrees Fahrenheit, an average humidity level of 47 to 79 percent with a narrow east-west distribution along the same 30-50 N” latitude. This includes Wuhan, China, South Korea, Japan, Iran, Northern Italy, Seattle, and Northern California. It could also spell increasing trouble for the Mid-Atlantic States and — as temperatures rise — New England.

‘“Based on what we have documented so far, it appears that the virus has a harder time spreading between people in warmer, tropical climates,” said study leader Mohammad Sajadi, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine in the UMSOM, physician-scientist at the Institute of Human Virology and a member of GVN.’

The paper referenced is titled “Temperature, Humidity and Latitude Analysis to Predict Potential Spread and Seasonality for COVID-19” and is available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3550308