(Monica Kortsha-Ut Austin/ Futurity) — The link between weather and COVID-19 is complicated. Weather influences the environment in which the coronavirus must survive before infecting a new host. But it also influences human behavior, which moves the virus from one host to another.
“The effect of weather is low and other features such as mobility have more impact than weather.”
The new research finds that temperature and humidity do not play a significant role in coronavirus spread.
That means whether it’s hot or cold outside, the transmission of COVID-19 from one person to the next depends almost entirely on human behavior.
“The effect of weather is low and other features such as mobility have more impact than weather,” says Dev Niyogi, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences and Cockrell School of Engineering who led the research. “In terms of relative importance, weather is one of the last parameters.” (…)