In summer, it was hot and sunny, and COVID-19 never disappeared. why not?

It’s the first week of summer, and despite the rumors and declarations from some public figures, despite the warm climate, the coronavirus is still here.

Summer plans adapt to the expansion of the pandemic, so it is important to understand why people need to pay attention to COVID-19.

many Infection Since it’s seasonal, it’s not unreasonable to think of COVID-19 as well. Influenza is notorious for rising in autumn and a surge in winter. When polio was still widespread diseaseThe worst outbreak was summer. However, understanding why an illness is seasonal can be a daunting task.

Popular culture began linking polio outbreaks to summer swimming after Franklin Roosevelt became ill during the holidays, but chlorine kills the virus in the water. Widespread vaccination expelled polio from most of the world before the cause of the polio season was understood.

The cause of the flu season is not yet fully understood. Some doctors have caused it Human behavior, Because people spend more time indoors together in colder weather. Other theories suggest that weather causes significant physical changes.

For example, studies have shown that the influenza virus spreads more easily in colder, dry air. However, there are some doubts as to whether this is due to the characteristics of the influenza virus, or whether the lungs may be more vulnerable to infection in these conditions. And in tropical environments, the flu is actually sick all year round and may spread more easily in moist air.

A few Early research To Coronavirus The person responsible for COVID-19 has found that, like the influenza virus, they are struggling to survive in hot and humid environments. But it’s not so safe to get in close contact with others, according to Timothy Siahan, a virologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

New research shows that coronavirus breathing is the main way it spreads, and touching contaminated objects makes it less likely to infect anyone. If two people are close and breathing in the same air, you can’t have a hot day to kill the virus.

This is also a problem with sunlight. It is believed that UV light or UV light can kill the virus, but even on sunny days COVID-19 cannot be stopped. The most energetic type of UV that can kill a virus in a short time is also the UV that is blocked by the atmosphere.

Hospitals and laboratories use special UV light sources to sterilize equipment, but they are much more powerful than sunlight. “If you shine that light on your skin, you will be able to set fire,” Sheehan said.

Humans without previous exposure to coronaviruses, and thus without immunity, may be more important in how the pandemic evolves in the next few months. This is also why the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic occurred in the summer. This is because this strain has never been experienced by most people.

The closest known relatives of the COVID-19 virus caused SARS, but there was no chance of becoming seasonal as traditional public health measures simply included it. “In the original SARS coronavirus, the onset of symptoms was contagious,” Sheahan said.

The two different coronaviruses that cause colds are seasonal. According to Sheehan, this is because they do not provide lifelong immunity. Because the cold-causing coronavirus is widespread all over the world, people are routinely re-infected after their immune system gradually weakens.

Depending on the progress of the pandemic, COVID-19 can become a seasonal disease. This depends on how long your immunity to the disease lasts.

“Suppose someone designs a vaccine that will give you lifelong immunity. Great! But that may not be possible,” Shehan said. This may be due to weakened immunity. Also, because coronaviruses are easily mutated, it is possible that COVID-19 could be mutated to evade the original immunity provided by the vaccine, similar to changes in seasonal influenza.

The more pervasive COVID-19 is, the harder it is to eliminate it. Sheahan is particularly concerned about the human story of COVID-19 being spread to other animals. If coronaviruses colonize other species, they may function as reservoirs to reinfect people even after the current pandemic of person-to-person transmission has ended.

If COVID-19 cannot be removed and becomes a seasonal disease, it is difficult to predict what it will look like. Coronaviruses, which cause seasonal colds, began to infect humans in the 1800s. Sheahan wants to know what the illness they caused was like at the time.

“Is it a more serious respiratory illness like COVID-19, or was it just a common cold?” he asked. “Do these things tell us about our future by looking at our past?”

© 2020 The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC)
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