Guest Post: The smoke from autumn burn-offs could make coronavirus symptoms worse.

I felt somewhat vindicated when this post appeared at The Conversation warning of hazard reduction burns smoke during the early pandemic. Correlation links had already been found between covid19 severity, increased mortality and higher levels of pollution.

See: Pandemic ponderings: Indications that High levels of Air Pollution exacerbate Covid19 spread (virus may be airborne) (March 26, 2020) and Pandemic Ponderings: US study finds Air pollution link to Covid19 deaths (April 8, 2020)

The smoke from autumn burn-offs could make coronavirus symptoms worse. It’s not worth the risk

MomentsForZen/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

Don Driscoll, Deakin University; Brian Oliver, University of Technology Sydney; Courtney Alice Waugh, Nord University; Marcel Klaassen, Deakin University, and Veerle L. B. Jaspers, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Pandemic Ponderings: US study finds Air pollution link to Covid19 deaths

New research from the Harvard School of Public Health highlights a possible causal link between PM2.5 particulate pollution and Covid19 deaths.

That is, areas in the US with higher levels of PM2.5 particulate pollution have statistically significant higher rate of Covid19 deaths.

The aggregated data strongly suggests a link, while the researchers suggest more research is needed down to the individual patient medical data level to positively confirm the link.

The New York Times Lisa Friedman has reported on the study in an article titled New Research Links Air Pollution to Higher Coronavirus Death Rates.