Will Warmer Weather Stop the Spread of the Coronavirus? Don ’t Count on It, Say Experts

As coronavirus continues to spread across the world, a simple solution has been repeated by some leaders: Warm summer temperatures will stop the outbreak in its tracks. U.S. President Donald Trump floated the idea that by April the coronavirus problem would solve itself. He told a crowd at a Feb. 10 rally in New Hampshire: “You know, in theory when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away, that’s true.” In Southeast Asia, officials in Indonesia have offered the warm climate as the reason that no cases have been diagnosed there. “Indonesia’s air is not like the air in China that is subtropical,” said Achmad Yurianto, a senior official in Indonesia’s health ministry, in response to a study suggesting there are likely to be undetected cases in the country. However, infectious disease experts say while the factors that cause other viruses to retreat during the summer months could affect this coronavirus, called COVID-19, in a similar way, there’s no way to be sure. And, even if the virus’ spread does slow as temperatures rise, that doesn’t mean it will be gone for good. Why cold and flu decrease in the summer There’s precedent for the idea that the COVID-19 outbreak will collapse with the onset of summer. The common cold is most prevalent in the winter and spring, and influenza is most common during the fall and winter in the U.S., with flu activity peaking between December and February, according to the...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 onetime overnight Source Type: news