Since the outbreak of COVID-19, its effects on different aspects of life have been subject to much research, including food security, a domain that has been of special concern in many low-income countries. Ethiopia has been facing many challenges related to food security for decades via drought, famine, and conflict. Within this context, this case study assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security in Ethiopia. Results show that the ongoing pandemic has negatively impacted different regions and at-risk groups in a heterogeneous manner. This has been mainly through disruptions in the Ethiopian food value chain and the relative failure of social security programmes to address the losses generated by COVID-19. The population in the capital city, Addis Ababa, was able to maintain the same level of food security despite income losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, at-risk groups such as refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and conflict affected regions were seen to suffer significantly from food insecurity exacerbated by COVID-19. Furthermore, this paper particularly emphasizes the importance of considering contextual factors other than COVID-19, such as conflicts or climate change, when discussing the state of food security in Ethiopia.
The African Sahel countries are inherently fragile, environmentally insecure and economically weak. This paper underscores the compounded impacts brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic on resource supply security and, hence, the long-term development of the region. It outlines the Sahel-specific COVID-19 scenario by firstly highlighting the underlying vulnerabilities and later linking the health sector outcomes to increased political instability and environmental insecurity, particularly the deterioration of food security. In this sense, this paper shows from a region-wide perspective how COVID-19 in the Sahel is associated with enlarged sociopolitical developmental perils. Lower remittance sent by expatriates, violent conflicts, increased cross-border terrorism and migration, discriminant mobility restrictions of people and goods, weak national healthcare infrastructures, bottlenecks in international aid, pressures on the education system and recent climate extremes are some revealing examples of aggravators of the impacts on the supply of vital resources, such as food. This paper also shows the importance of considering the close interlinks between health, food and political stability in the Sahel. There is a paramount need for more comprehensive approaches linking human health to other sectors, and for re-considering local sustainable agriculture. To avoid prolonged or recurrent humanitarian crises, the Sahel countries need to strengthen response capacities through public sector-led responses. Examples of these responses include reinforced national disaster programs for the vulnerable, support to sustainable agriculture and food markets, improved performance and communication of public sector relief, state-based cooperation, building of regional alliances and peacemaking efforts.
The Uttarakhand State, known for its Himalayan Mountains, is a territory in Northern India that is extremely vulnerable to earthquakes, landslides, and floods. Currently, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, India is facing the dual challenge of containing a pandemic and responding to natural disasters. This situation can have a negative impact on the health and the economic development of the region, leading to a long-lasting humanitarian crisis that can disrupt even more, the already overburdened health service. In addition, it can pose serious threats to the wellbeing of the population as it complicates physical distancing and other COVID-19 prevention measures. It is of utmost importance to analyse the impact of floods, landslides, and COVID-19 pandemic on the health system of the Uttarakhand State, and how these crises interact with each other.
Cyclone Amphan battered the coastal communities in the southwestern part of Bangladesh in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. These coastal communities were experiencing such a situation for the first time and faced the dilemma of whether to stay at home and embrace the cyclone or be exposed to the COVID-19 virus in the cyclone shelters by evacuating. This article intends to explore individuals’ decisions regarding whether to evacuate in response to cyclone Amphan and in light of the risks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, this study investigated evacuation behaviors among the households and explored the impacts of COVID-19 during the evacuation procedures. We conducted household surveys to collect primary information and undertook 378 samples for interviews at a precision level of 0.05 in fourteen villages. Despite the utmost effort of the government, the results demonstrated that 96.6% of people in the coastal area received a cyclone evacuation order before the cyclone’s landfall, and only 42% of people followed the evacuation order. The majority of households chose to stay at home because of fear of COVID-19 exposure in the crowded shelters. Although half of the evacuees were housed in cyclone shelters, COVID-19 preventive measures were apparently not set in place. Thus, this study will assist in crafting future government policies to enhance disaster evacuation plans by providing insights from the pandemic that can inform disaster management plans in the Global South.
Background The world has been battling several vector-borne diseases since time immemorial. Socio-economic marginality, precipitation variations and human behavioral attributes play a major role in the proliferation of these diseases. Lockdown and social distancing have affected social behavioral aspects of human life and somehow impact on the spread of vector borne diseases. This article sheds light into the relationship between COVID-19 lockdown and global dengue burden with special focus on India. It also focuses on the interconnection of the COVID-19 pandemic (waves 1 and 2) and the alteration of human behavioral patterns in dengue cases. Methods We performed a systematic search using various resources from different platforms and websites, such as Medline; Pubmed; PAHO; WHO; CDC; ECDC; Epidemiology Unit Ministry of Health (Sri Lanka Government); NASA; NVBDCP from 2015 until 2021. We have included many factors, such as different geographical conditions (tropical climate, semitropic and arid conditions); GDP rate (developed nations, developing nations, and underdeveloped nations). We also categorized our data in order to conform to COVID-19 duration from 2019 to 2021. Data was extracted for the complete duration of 10 years (2012 to 2021) from various countries with different geographical region (arid region, semitropic/semiarid region and tropical region). Results There was a noticeable reduction in dengue cases in underdeveloped (70-85%), developing (50-90%), and developed nations (75%) in the years 2019 and 2021. The dengue cases drastically reduced by 55-65% with the advent of COVID-19 s wave in the year 2021 across the globe. Conclusions At present, we can conclude that COVID-19 and dengue show an inverse relationship. These preliminary, data-based observations should guide clinical practice until more data are made public and basis for further medical research.
The common cold is a leading cause of morbidity and contributes significantly to the health costs in Bhutan. The study utilized multivariate Zero-inflated Poisson regression in a Bayesian framework to identify climatic variability and spatial and temporal patterns of the common cold in Bhutan. There were 2,480,509 notifications of common cold between 2010 and 2018. Children aged < 15 years were twice (95% credible interval [CrI] 2.2, 2.5) as likely to get common cold than adults, and males were 12.4% (95 CrI 5.5%, 18.7%) less likely to get common cold than females. A 10 mm increase in rainfall lagged one month, and each 1 °C increase of maximum temperature was associated with a 5.1% (95% CrI 4.2%, 6.1%) and 2.6% (95% CrI 2.3%, 2.8%) increase in the risk of cold respectively. An increase in elevation of 100 m and 1% increase in relative humidity lagged three months were associated with a decrease in risk of common cold by 0.1% (95% CrI 0.1%, 0.2%) and 0.3% (95% CrI 0.2%, 0.3%) respectively. Seasonality and spatial heterogeneity can partly be explained by the association of common cold to climatic variables. There was statistically significant residual clustering after accounting for covariates. The finding highlights the influence of climatic variables on common cold and suggests that prioritizing control strategies for acute respiratory infection program to subdistricts and times of the year when climatic variables are associated with common cold may be an effective strategy.
The impacts of wildfires on the health of children are becoming a more urgent matter as wildfires become more frequent, intense and affecting, not only forested areas, but also urban locations. It is important that medical professionals be prepared to provide information to patients and families on how to minimize the adverse health effects on children of wildfire smoke and ash from wildfires. (C) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Big Events are periods during which abnormal large-scale events like war, economic collapse, revolts, or pandemics disrupt daily life and expectations about the future. They can lead to rapid change in health-related norms, beliefs, social networks and behavioural practices. The world is undergoing such Big Events through the interaction of COVID-19, a large economic downturn, massive social unrest in many countries, and ever-worsening effects of global climate change. Previous research, mainly on HIV/AIDS, suggests that the health effects of Big Events can be profound, but are contingent: Sometimes Big Events led to enormous outbreaks of HIV and associated diseases and conditions such as injection drug use, sex trading, and tuberculosis, but in other circumstances, Big Events did not do so. This paper discusses and presents hypotheses about pathways through which the current Big Events might lead to better or worse short and long term outcomes for various health conditions and diseases; considers how pre-existing societal conditions and changing ‘pathway’ variables can influence the impact of Big Events; discusses how to measure these pathways; and suggests ways in which research and surveillance might be conducted to improve human capacity to prevent or mitigate the effects of Big Events on human health.
Racial and ethnic minority and lower-income groups are disproportionately affected by environmental hazards and suffer worse health outcomes than other groups in the United States. Relative to whites and higher-income groups, racial-ethnic minority and lower-income Americans also frequently express greater concern about high-profile global environmental threats like climate change, but they are widely misperceived as being less concerned about these issues than white and higher-income Americans. We use new survey research to explore public perceptions of COVID-19-another global threat marked by substantial racial, ethnic, and class disparities-finding a distinct pattern of misperceptions regarding groups’ concerns. We then discuss how these misperceptions represent a unique form of social misinformation that may pose a threat to science and undermine the cooperation and trust needed to address collective problems.
This research aims to look at the link between environmental pollutants and the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in California. To illustrate the COVID-19 outbreak, weather, and environmental pollution, we used daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 patients, average daily temperature, and air quality Index, respectively. To evaluate the data from March 1 to May 24, 2020, we used continuous wavelet transform and then applied partial wavelet coherence (PWC), wavelet transform coherence (WTC), and multiple wavelet coherence (MWC). Empirical estimates disclose a significant association between these series at different time-frequency spaces. The COVID-19 outbreak in California and average daily temperature show a negative (out phase) coherence. Similarly, the air quality index and COVID-19 also show a negative association circle during the second week of the observed period. Our findings will serve as policy implications for state and health officials and regulators to combat the COVID-19 outbreak.
INTRODUCTION: The spatiotemporal patterns of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is detected in the United States, which shows temperature difference (TD) with cumulative hysteresis effect significantly changes the daily new confirmed cases after eliminating the interference of population density. METHODOLOGY: The nonlinear feature of updated cases is captured through Generalized Additive Mixed Model (GAMM) with threshold points; Exposure-response curve suggests that daily confirmed cases is changed at the different stages of TD according to the threshold points of piecewise function, which traces out the rule of updated cases under different meteorological condition. RESULTS: Our results show that the confirmed cases decreased by 0.390% (95% CI: -0.478 ~ -0.302) for increasing each one degree of TD if TD is less than 11.5°C; It will increase by 0.302% (95% CI: 0.215 ~ 0.388) for every 1°C increase in the TD (lag0-4) at the interval [11.5, 16]; Meanwhile the number of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases will increase by 0.321% (95% CI: 0.142 ~ 0.499) for every 1°C increase in the TD (lag0-4) when the TD (lag0-4) is over 16°C, and the most fluctuation occurred on Sunday. The results of the sensitivity analysis confirmed our model robust. CONCLUSIONS: In US, this interval effect of TD reminds us that it is urgent to control the spread and infection of COVID-19 when TD becomes greater in autumn and the ongoing winter.
This article considers the optimal structure of institutions that respond to existential threats such as climate change and pandemics. While science must play a central role in guiding policy responses, there are many values at stake that ought to be reflected in institutional design. There is a distinction between risk assessment, a science-driven analysis in these contexts, and risk management, in which trade-offs are considered in responding to the threats. Moreover, the nature of these threats depends on complex, uncertain and fluid scientific knowledge that requires institutions to be sensitive to communication challenges. Finally, institutions should consider collective action problems and defer or delegate to jurisdictions and institutions whose scope of mandate is appropriate. We assess the Canadian response to the COVID-19 pandemic from an institutional perspective and conclude that, amongst other things, it was insufficiently multidisciplinary, which risked marginalizing the non-public health costs of policy responses to the pandemic.
Understanding whether and how wildfires exacerbate COVID-19 outcomes is important for assessing the efficacy and design of public sector responses in an age of more frequent and simultaneous natural disasters and extreme events. Drawing on environmental and emergency management literatures, we investigate how wildfire smoke (PM(2.5)) impacted COVID-19 infections and deaths during California’s 2020 wildfire season and how public housing resources and hospital capacity moderated wildfires’ effects on COVID-19 outcomes. We also hypothesize and empirically assess the differential impact of wildfire smoke on COVID-19 infections and deaths in counties exhibiting high and low social vulnerability. To test our hypotheses concerning wildfire severity and its disproportionate impact on COVID-19 outcomes in socially vulnerable communities, we construct a county-by-day panel dataset for the period April 1 to November 30, 2020, in California, drawing on publicly available state and federal data sources. This study’s empirical results, based on panel fixed effects models, show that wildfire smoke is significantly associated with increases in COVID-19 infections and deaths. Moreover, wildfires exacerbated COVID-19 outcomes by depleting the already scarce hospital and public housing resources in local communities. Conversely, when wildfire smoke doubled, a one percent increase in the availability of hospital and public housing resources was associated with a 2 to 7 percent decline in COVID-19 infections and deaths. For California communities exhibiting high social vulnerability, the occurrence of wildfires worsened COVID-19 outcomes. Sensitivity analyses based on an alternative sample size and different measures of social vulnerability validate this study’s main findings. An implication of this study for policymakers is that communities exhibiting high social vulnerability will greatly benefit from local government policies that promote social equity in housing and healthcare before, during, and after disasters.
The 2020 California wildfire season coincided with the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic affecting many counties in California, with impacts on air quality. We quantitatively analyzed the short-term effect of air pollution on COVID-19 transmission using county-level data collected during the 2020 wildfire season. Using time-series methodology, we assessed the relationship between short-term exposure to particulate matter (PM(2.5)), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)), and Air Quality Index (AQI) on confirmed cases of COVID-19 across 20 counties impacted by wildfires. Our findings indicate that PM(2.5), CO, and AQI are positively associated with confirmed COVID-19 cases. This suggests that increased air pollution could worsen the situation of a health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Health policymakers should make tailored policies to cope with situations that may increase the level of air pollution, especially during a wildfire season.
Background: Air pollution has been linked to increased susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2. Thus, it has been suggested that wildfire smoke events may exacerbate the COVID-19 pandemic. Objectives: Our goal was to examine whether wildfire smoke from the 2020 wildfires in the western United States was associated with an increased rate of SARS-CoV-2 infections in Reno, Nevada. Methods: We conducted a time-series analysis using generalized additive models to examine the relationship between the SARS-CoV-2 test positivity rate at a large regional hospital in Reno and ambient PM2.5 from 15 May to 20 Oct 2020. Results: We found that a 10 µg/m3 increase in the 7-day average PM2.5 concentration was associated with a 6.3% relative increase in the SARS-CoV-2 test positivity rate, with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 2.5 to 10.3%. This corresponded to an estimated 17.7% (CI: 14.4-20.1%) increase in the number of cases during the time period most affected by wildfire smoke, from 16 Aug to 10 Oct. Significance: Wildfire smoke may have greatly increased the number of COVID-19 cases in Reno. Thus, our results substantiate the role of air pollution in exacerbating the pandemic and can help guide the development of public preparedness policies in areas affected by wildfire smoke, as wildfires are likely to coincide with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.
Individually, both droughts and pandemics cause disruptions to global food supply chains. The 21st century has seen the frequent occurrence of both natural and human disasters, including droughts and pandemics. Together their impacts can be compounded, leading to severe economic stress and malnutrition, particularly in developing countries. Understanding how droughts and pandemics interact, and identifying appropriate policies to address them together and separately, is important for maintaining a robust global food supply. Herein we assess the impacts of each of these disasters in the context of food and agriculture, and then discuss their compounded effect. We discuss the implications for policy, and suggest opportunities for future research.
BACKGROUND: In March 2020, the Louisiana Department of Health activated the Medical Monitoring Station (MMS) in downtown New Orleans. This alternative care site is designed to decompress hospitals and nursing homes overwhelmed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Given the city’s historic vulnerability to hurricanes, planning for possible tropical weather events has been a priority for MMS leadership. METHODS: The planning process incorporated input from all sectors/agencies working at the facility, to ensure consistency and cohesion. The MMS Shelter-in-Place Plan (MSIPP) was created, and a comprehensive tabletop exercise was conducted. RESULTS: Six planning topics emerged as a result of the planning process and were used to create a comprehensive plan for sheltering-in-place. These topics address hurricane preparedness for patient care, interfacility coordination, wrap-around services, medical logistics, essential staffing, and incident command during a shelter-in-place scenario. CONCLUSIONS: The MSIPP created by the MMS helped to maximize patient safety and continuity of operations during a real-world event. Select pieces of the plan were activated to meet the needs and threat level of Tropical Storm Cristobal. This experience reinforced the need for originality, scalability, and flexibility in building emergency operations plans in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic.
Climate change affects human health, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) incidence is one of the health impacts of climate change. This study is a retrospective cohort study. Data have been collected from the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education between 17 February 2016 and17 February 2018. The Neural Network Model has been used to predict SARS infection. Based on the results of the multivariate Poisson regression and the analysis of the coexistence of the variables, the minimum daily temperature was positively associated with the risk of SARS in men and women. The risk of SARS has increased in women and men with increasing daily rainfall. According to the result, by changes in bioclimatic parameters, the number of SARS patients will be increased in cities of Iran. Our study has shown a significant relationship between SARS and the climatic variables by the type of climate and gender. The estimates suggest that hospital admissions for climate-related respiratory diseases in Iran will increase by 36% from 2020 to 2050. This study demonstrates one of the health impacts of climate change. Policymakers can control the risks of climate change by mitigation and adaptation strategists.
Objectives: Sandstorms are natural climate calamities causing severe weather changes and health prob-lems. The sandstorm allied issues are of significant apprehension worldwide, mainly in the present pan-demic. This study aims to examine the “sandstorm impact on environmental pollution particulate matter (PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), and daily new cases and deaths due to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ” in Kuwait. Methods: The two incidences of sandstorms occurred in Kuwait, dated 13 March 2021 and 13 June 2021. The data on “PM2.5, CO, NO2, and O-3, and SARS-CoV-2 cases and deaths ” were documented three weeks before and after both incidences of the sandstorm. For the first incidence, the data was recorded from 18 February to 12 March 2021; and from 13 March to 2 April 2021. However, for the second incidence of sandstorms, data were documented from 23 May to 12 June 2021; and from 13 June to 3 July 2021. The daily “PM2.5, CO, NO2, and O-3 levels ” were recorded from “Air Quality Index-AQI, metrological web, and data on COVID-19 daily cases and deaths were recorded from the World Health Organization “. Results: After the first and second sandstorm incidence, the air contaminants PM2.5 was increased by 26.62%, CO 22.08%, and O-3 increased 18.10% compared to before the sandstorm. SARS-CoV-2 cases were markedly amplified by (21.25%), and deaths were increased by (61.32%) after the sandstorm. Conclusions: Sandstorm events increase air pollutants PM2.5, CO, and O-3 levels, and these pollutants increase the SARS-COV-2 daily cases and deaths in Kuwait. The findings have a meaningful memorandum to healthcare representatives to advise the public about the health hazards of the sandstorm and its link-age with SARS-CoV-2 cases and deaths. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.
The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the central role of the One Health (OH) approach, as a multisectoral and multidisciplinary perspective, to tackle health threats at the human-animal-environment interface. This study assessed Brazilian preparedness and response to COVID-19 and zoonoses with a focus on the OH approach and equity dimensions. We conducted an environmental scan using a protocol developed as part of a multi-country study. The article selection process resulted in 45 documents: 79 files and 112 references on OH; 41 files and 81 references on equity. The OH and equity aspects are poorly represented in the official documents regarding the COVID-19 response, either at the federal and state levels. Brazil has a governance infrastructure that allows for the response to infectious diseases, including zoonoses, as well as the fight against antimicrobial resistance through the OH approach. However, the response to the pandemic did not fully utilize the resources of the Brazilian state, due to the lack of central coordination and articulation among the sectors involved. Brazil is considered an area of high risk for emergence of zoonoses mainly due to climate change, large-scale deforestation and urbanization, high wildlife biodiversity, wide dry frontier, and poor control of wild animals’ traffic. Therefore, encouraging existing mechanisms for collaboration across sectors and disciplines, with the inclusion of vulnerable populations, is required for making a multisectoral OH approach successful in the country.
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was notable for a record-setting 30 named storms while, contemporaneously, the COVID-19 pandemic was circumnavigating the globe. The active spread of COVID-19 complicated disaster preparedness and response actions to safeguard coastal and island populations from hurricane hazards. Major hurricanes Eta and Iota, the most powerful storms of the 2020 Atlantic season, made November landfalls just two weeks apart, both coming ashore along the Miskito Coast in Nicaragua’s North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region. Eta and Iota bore the hallmarks of climate-driven storms, including rapid intensification, high peak wind speeds, and decelerating forward motion prior to landfall. Hurricane warning systems, combined with timely evacuation and sheltering procedures, minimized loss of life during hurricane impact. Yet these protective actions potentially elevated risks for COVID-19 transmission for citizens sharing congregate shelters during the storms and for survivors who were displaced post-impact due to severe damage to their homes and communities. International border closures and travel restrictions that were in force to slow the spread of COVID-19 diminished the scope, timeliness, and effectiveness of the humanitarian response for survivors of Eta and Iota. Taken together, the extreme impacts from hurricanes Eta and Iota, compounded by the ubiquitous threat of COVID-19 transmission, and the impediments to international humanitarian response associated with movement restrictions during the pandemic, acted to exacerbate harms to population health for the citizens of Nicaragua.
Non-technical summaryHumans have the tendency to damage the natural environment in many ways. Deforestation and conversion of forests for residential, industrial development, and expansion of agricultural crops, as well as the burning of fossil fuels, are some activities that disrupt natural ecosystems and wildlife and contribute to climate change. As a result, the life cycles of pathogens and intermediate hosts (insects, rodents, mammals) as well as biodiversity are affected. Through these activities, humans meet wild animals that transmit pathogens, resulting in their infection by zoonoses and causing epidemics-pandemics, the effects of which have as their final recipient himself and his activities. Technical summaryThis article aims to highlight the two-way relationship between those human activities and the occurrence of epidemics-pandemics. We will try to elaborate this two-way relationship, through the overview of the current pandemic (origin of SARS-CoV-2, modes of transmission, clinical picture of the disease of COVID-19, influence of weather and air pollution on prevalence and mortality, pandemic effects, and treatments). They are used as primary sources, scientific articles, literature, websites, and databases (Supplementary appendix) to analyze factors involved in the occurrence and transmission of zoonotic diseases in humans (Ebola, influenza, Lyme disease, dengue fever, cholera, AIDS/HIV, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV). The present paper concluded that humanity today faces two major challenges: controlling the COVID-19 pandemic and minimizing the risk of a new global health crisis occurring in the future. The first can be achieved through equitable access to vaccines and treatments for all people. The second needs the global community to make a great change and start protecting the natural environment and its ecosystems through the adoption of prevention policies. Summary of social mediaTwo-way relationship between human activities and epidemics highlighted, through review of the COVID-19 pandemic.
BACKGROUND: Zoonotic diseases account for more than 70% of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs). Due to their increasing incidence and impact on global health and the economy, the emergence of zoonoses is a major public health challenge. Here, we use a biogeographic approach to predict future hotspots and determine the factors influencing disease emergence. We have focused on the following three viral disease groups of concern: Filoviridae, Coronaviridae, and Henipaviruses. METHODS: We modelled presence-absence data in spatially explicit binomial and zero-inflation binomial logistic regressions with and without autoregression. Presence data were extracted from published studies for the three EID groups. Various environmental and demographical rasters were used to explain the distribution of the EIDs. True Skill Statistic and deviance parameters were used to compare the accuracy of the different models. RESULTS: For each group of viruses, we were able to identify and map areas at high risk of disease emergence based on the spatial distribution of the disease reservoirs and hosts of the three viral groups. Common influencing factors of disease emergence were climatic covariates (minimum temperature and rainfall) and human-induced land modifications. CONCLUSIONS: Using topographical, climatic, and previous disease outbreak reports, we can identify and predict future high-risk areas for disease emergence and their specific underlying human and environmental drivers. We suggest that such a predictive approach to EIDs should be carefully considered in the development of active surveillance systems for pathogen emergence and epidemics at local and global scales.
COVID-19 has revealed how challenging it is to manage global, systemic and compounding crises. Like COVID-19, climate change impacts, and maladaptive responses to them, have potential to disrupt societies at multiple scales via networks of trade, finance, mobility and communication, and to impact hardest on the most vulnerable. However, these complex systems can also facilitate resilience if managed effectively. This review aims to distil lessons related to the transboundary management of systemic risks from the COVID-19 experience, to inform climate change policy and resilience building. Evidence from diverse fields is synthesised to illustrate the nature of systemic risks and our evolving understanding of resilience. We describe research methods that aim to capture systemic complexity to inform better management practices and increase resilience to crises. Finally, we recommend specific, practical actions for improving transboundary climate risk management and resilience building. These include mapping the direct, cross-border and cross-sectoral impacts of potential climate extremes, adopting adaptive risk management strategies that embrace heterogenous decision-making and uncertainty, and taking a broader approach to resilience which elevates human wellbeing, including societal and ecological resilience.
The Lancet Countdown is an international collaboration that independently monitors the health consequences of a changing climate. Publishing updated, new, and improved indicators each year, the Lancet Countdown represents the consensus of leading researchers from 43 academic institutions and UN agencies. The 44 indicators of this report expose an unabated rise in the health impacts of climate change and the current health consequences of the delayed and inconsistent response of countries around the globe—providing a clear imperative for accelerated action that puts the health of people and planet above all else.
Background: Recent studies indicated the possible relationship between climate change, environmental pollution, and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study reviewed the effects of air pollution, climate parameters, and lockdown on the number of cases and deaths related to COVID-19. Methods: The present review was performed to determine the effects of weather and air pollution on the number of cases and deaths related to COVID-19 during the lockdown. Articles were collected by searching the existing online databases, such as PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar, with no limitations on publication dates. Afterwards, this review focused on outdoor air pollution, including PM2.5, PM10, NO2, SO2, and O-3, and weather conditions affecting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)/COVID-19. Results: Most reviewed investigations in the present study showed that exposure to air pollutants, particularly PM2.5 and NO2, is positively related to COVID-19 patients and mortality. Moreover, these studies showed that air pollution could be essential in transmitting COVID-19. Local meteorology plays a vital role in coronavirus spread and mortality. Temperature and humidity variables are negatively correlated with virus transmission. The evidence demonstrated that air pollution could lead to COVID-19 transmission. These results support decision-makers in curbing potential new outbreaks. Conclusions: Overall, in environmental perspective-based COVID-19 studies, efforts should be accelerated regarding effective policies for reducing human emissions, bringing about air pollution and weather change. Therefore, using clean and renewable energy sources will increase public health and environmental quality by improving global air quality.
Internists are experts in complexity, and the COVID-19 pandemic is disclosing complex and unexpected interactions between communicable and non-communicable diseases, environmental factors, and socio-economic disparities. The medicine of complexity cannot be limited to facing comorbidities and to the clinical management of multifaceted diseases. Evidence indicates how climate change, pollution, demographic unbalance, and inequalities can affect the spreading and outcomes of COVID-19 in vulnerable communities. These elements cannot be neglected, and a wide view of public health aspects by a “one-health” approach is strongly and urgently recommended. According to World Health Organization, 35% of infectious diseases involving the lower respiratory tract depend on environmental factors, and infections from SARS-Cov-2 is not an exception. Furthermore, environmental pollution generates a large burden of non-communicable diseases and disabilities, increasing the individual vulnerability to COVID-19 and the chance for the resilience of large communities worldwide. In this field, the awareness of internists must increase, as privileged healthcare providers. They need to gain a comprehensive knowledge of elements characterizing COVID-19 as part of a syndemic. This is the case when pandemic events hit vulnerable populations suffering from the increasing burden of chronic diseases, disabilities, and social and economic inequalities. Mastering the interplay of such events requires a change in overall strategy, to adequately manage not only the SARS-CoV-2 infection but also the growing burden of non-communicable diseases by a “one health” approach. In this context, experts in internal medicine have the knowledge and skills to drive this change.
COVID-19 has caused 100s of millions of infections and millions of deaths worldwide, overwhelming health and economic capacities in many countries and at multiple scales. The immediacy and magnitude of this crisis has resulted in government officials, practitioners and applied scholars turning to reflexive learning exercises to generate insights for managing the reverberating effects of this disease as well as the next inevitable pandemic. We contribute to both tasks by assessing COVID-19 as a super wicked problem denoted by four features we originally formulated to describe the climate crisis: time is running out, no central authority, those causing the problem also want to solve it, and policies irrationally discount the future (Levin et al. in Playing it forward: path dependency, progressive incrementalism, and the super wicked problem of global climate change, 2007; Levin et al. in Playing it forward: Path dependency, progressive incrementalism, and the super wicked problem of global climate change, 2009; Levin et al. in Policy Sci 45(2):123-152, 2012). Doing so leads us to identify three overarching imperatives critical for pandemic management. First, similar to requirements to address the climate crisis, policy makers must establish and maintain durable policy objectives. Second, in contrast to climate, management responses must always allow for swift changes in policy settings and calibrations given rapid and evolving knowledge about a particular disease’s epidemiology. Third, analogous to, but with swifter effects than climate, wide-ranging global efforts, if well designed, will dramatically reduce domestic costs and resource requirements by curbing the spread of the disease and/or fostering relevant knowledge for managing containment and eradication. Accomplishing these tasks requires building the analytic capacity for engaging in reflexive anticipatory policy design exercises aimed at maintaining, or building, life-saving thermostatic institutions at the global and domestic levels.
This study investigated the spatio-temporal variations in the occurrence of COVID-19 (confirmed cases and deaths) in relation to climate fluctuations in 61 countries, scattered around the world, from December 31, 2019 to May 28, 2020. Logarithm transformation of the count variable (COVID-19 cases) was used in a multiple linear regression model to predict the potential effects of weather variables on the prevalence of the disease. The study revealed strong associations (-0.510 ≤ r ≤ -0.967; 0.519 ≤ r ≤ 0.999) between climatic variables and confirmed cases of COVID-19 in majority (68.85%) of the selected countries. It showed evidences of 1 to 7-day delays in the response of the infection to changes in weather pattern. Model simulations suggested that a unit fall in temperature and humidity could increase (0.04-18.70%) the infection in 19.67% and 16.39% of the countries, respectively, while a general reduction (-0.05 to 9.40%) in infection cases was projected in 14.75% countries with a unit drop in precipitation. In conclusion, the study suggests that effective public health interventions are crucial to containing the projected upsurge in COVID-19 cases during both cold and warm seasons in the southern and northern hemispheres.
Structural and genetic differences among various viruses play a significant factor in host infectivity and vulnerability to environmental stressors. Zoonoses of viruses require several recombinations and mutations in their genetic material and among several viruses allowing them to switch hosts and infect new species. Additionally, the host genetics play a significant role in successful viral transmission among various hosts. For example, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Ebola virus and influenza viruses. In efficient zoonotic events, selective stresses in the host milieu-interieur are critical during viral infection of the first human host. The genetic rearrangement of the virus and the selective environmental pressure of the host immune system dominate the emergence of new viral disease outbreaks.
Evidences of an association between air pollution and Covid-19 infections are mixed and inconclusive. We conducted an ecological analysis at regional scale of long-term exposure to air-borne particle matter and spread of Covid-19 cases during the first wave of epidemics. Global air pollution and climate data were calculated from satellite earth observation data assimilated into numerical models at 10 km resolution. Main outcome was defined as the cumulative number of cases of Covid-19 in the 14 days following the date when > 10 cumulative cases were reported. Negative binomial mixed effect models were applied to estimate the associations between the outcome and long-term exposure to air pollution at the regional level (PM(10), PM(2.5)), after adjusting for relevant regional and country level covariates and spatial correlation. In total we collected 237,749 Covid-19 cases from 730 regions, 63 countries and 5 continents at May 30, 2020. A 10 μg/m(3) increase of pollution level was associated with 8.1% (95% CI 5.4%, 10.5%) and 11.5% (95% CI 7.8%, 14.9%) increases in the number of cases in a 14 days window, for PM(2.5) and PM(10) respectively. We found an association between Covid-19 cases and air pollution suggestive of a possible causal link among particulate matter levels and incidence of COVID-19.
Why have some countries done significantly better than others in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic? Had some countries been better prepared than others? This paper attempts to shed light on these questions by examining the role of climate risk and culture in explaining the cross-country variation in the Covid-19 mortality, while controlling for other potential drivers. In our analysis, we consider climate risk, readiness to climate change and individualism as main indicators reflecting the climate and culture status of individual countries. Using data from 110 countries, we find that the greater the climate risk; the lower the readiness to climate change and the more individualistic the society, the higher the pandemic mortality rate. We also present a series of sensitivity checks and show that our findings are robust to different specifications, alternative definitions of the mortality rate; and different estimation methods. One policy implication arising from our results is that countries that were better prepared for the climate emergency were also better placed to fight the pandemic. Overall, countries in which individuals look after each other and the environment, creating sustainable societies, are better able to cope with climate and public health emergencies.
BACKGROUND: Climate change based on temperature, humidity and wind can improve many characteristics of the arthropod carrier life cycle, including survival, arthropod population, pathogen communication, and the spread of infectious agents from vectors. This study aimed to find association between content of disease followed climate change we demonstrate in humans. METHODS: All the articles from 2016 to 2021 associated with global climate change and the effect of vector-borne disease were selected form databases including PubMed and the Global Biodiversity information facility database. All the articles selected for this short review were English. RESULTS: Due to the high burden of infectious diseases and the growing evidence of the possible effects of climate change on the incidence of these diseases, these climate changes can potentially be involved with the COVID-19 epidemic. We highlighted the evidence of vector-borne diseases and the possible effects of climate change on these communicable diseases. CONCLUSION: Climate change, specifically in rising temperature system is one of the world’s greatest concerns already affected pathogen-vector and host relation. Lice parasitic, fleas, mites, ticks, and mosquitos are the prime public health importance in the transmission of virus to human hosts.
Background: Most respiratory viruses show pronounced seasonality, but for SARS-CoV-2, this still needs to be documented. Methods: We examined the disease progression of COVID-19 in 6,914 patients admitted to hospitals in Europe and China. In addition, we evaluated progress of disease symptoms in 37,187 individuals reporting symptoms into the COVID Symptom Study application. Findings: Meta-analysis of the mortality risk in seven European hospitals estimated odds ratios per 1-day increase in the admission date to be 0.981 (0.973-0.988, p < 0.001) and per increase in ambient temperature of 1°C to be 0.854 (0.773-0.944, p = 0.007). Statistically significant decreases of comparable magnitude in median hospital stay, probability of transfer to the intensive care unit, and need for mechanical ventilation were also observed in most, but not all hospitals. The analysis of individually reported symptoms of 37,187 individuals in the UK also showed the decrease in symptom duration and disease severity with time. Interpretation: Severity of COVID-19 in Europe decreased significantly between March and May and the seasonality of COVID-19 is the most likely explanation.
The global crises of climate change and of the COVID-19 pandemic are straining young peoples’ mental health and their mitigation behaviours. We surveyed German-speaking university students aged 18 to 30 years on their negative emotions regarding both crises repeatedly before and during the COVID-19 crisis. Different emotional patterns emerged for climate change and for COVID-19 with negative emotions regarding COVID-19 increasing during the pandemic. We were further able to differentiate between emotional responses associated with impaired wellbeing and those associated with mitigation efforts. Our findings emphasise the need to focus on a mixture of highly inactivating and activating emotions regarding COVID-19 as they are associated with both reduced wellbeing and mitigation behaviours. The findings broaden the understanding of how young adults react to the burden of two global crises and what role negative emotions play.
COVID-19 pandemic continues to obstruct social lives and the world economy other than questioning the healthcare capacity of many countries. Weather components recently came to notice as the northern hemisphere was hit by escalated incidence in winter. This study investigated the association between COVID-19 cases and two components, average temperature and relative humidity, in the 16 states of Germany. Three main approaches were carried out in this study, namely temporal correlation, spatial auto-correlation, and clustering-integrated panel regression. It is claimed that the daily COVID-19 cases correlate negatively with the average temperature and positively with the average relative humidity. To extract the spatial auto-correlation, both global Moran’s [Formula: see text] and global Geary’s [Formula: see text] were used whereby no significant difference in the results was observed. It is evident that randomness overwhelms the spatial pattern in all the states for most of the observations, except in recent observations where either local clusters or dispersion occurred. This is further supported by Moran’s scatter plot, where states’ dynamics to and fro cold and hot spots are identified, rendering a traveling-related early warning system. A random-effects model was used in the sense of case-weather regression including incidence clustering. Our task is to perceive which ranges of the incidence that are well predicted by the existing weather components rather than seeing which ranges of the weather components predicting the incidence. The proposed clustering-integrated model associated with optimal barriers articulates the data well whereby weather components outperform lag incidence cases in the prediction. Practical implications based on marginal effects follow posterior to model diagnostics.
During the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic disease, like several countries, Romania experienced a multiwaves pattern over more than two years. The spreading pattern of SARS-CoV-2 pathogens in the Bucharest, capital of Romania is a multi-factorial process involving among other factors outdoor environmental variables and viral inactivation. Through descriptive statistics and cross-correlation analysis applied to daily time series of observational and geospatial data, this study aims to evaluate the synergy of COVID-19 incidence and lethality with air pollution and radon under different climate conditions, which may exacerbate the coronavirus’ effect on human health. During the entire analyzed period 1 January 2020-21 December 2021, for each of the four COVID-19 waves were recorded different anomalous anticyclonic synoptic meteorological patterns in the mid-troposphere, and favorable stability conditions during fall-early winter seasons for COVID-19 disease fast-spreading, mostly during the second, and the fourth waves. As the temporal pattern of airborne SARS-CoV-2 and its mutagen variants is affected by seasonal variability of the main air pollutants and climate parameters, this paper found: 1) the daily outdoor exposures to air pollutants (particulate matter PM2.5 and PM10, nitrogen dioxide-NO(2), sulfur dioxide-SO(2), carbon monoxide-CO) and radon – (222)Rn, are directly correlated with the daily COVID-19 incidence and mortality, and may contribute to the spread and the severity of the pandemic; 2) the daily ground ozone-O(3) levels, air temperature, Planetary Boundary Layer height, and surface solar irradiance are anticorrelated with the daily new COVID-19 incidence and deaths, averageingful for spring-summer periods. Outdoor exposure to ambient air pollution associated with radon is a non-negligible driver of COVID-19 transmission in large metropolitan areas, and climate variables are risk factors in spreading the viral infection. The findings of this study provide useful information for public health authorities and decision-makers to develop future pandemic diseases strategies in high polluted metropolitan environments.
Issues continuously compete for attention in the news media and on social media. Climate change is one of the most urgent problems for society and (re)gained wide public attention in 2019 through the global climate strike protest movement. However, we hypothesize that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 challenged the role of climate change as a routine issue. We use extensive news media and Twitter data to explore if and how the pandemic as a so-called killer issue has shifted public attention away from the issue of climate change in Switzerland. Results show that the climate debate fell victim to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the news media and the Twitter-sphere. Given the vast dominance of the pandemic, there is a strong indication this finding applies similarly to various other issues. Additional hashtag co-occurrence analysis shows that some climate activists react to this development and try to connect the issue of climate change to the pandemic. We argue that suppression of climate change by the pandemic is a problem for its long-term resolution, as it seems to have turned climate change back into a struggling issue.
Excess mortality not directly related to the virus has been shown to have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, changes in heat-related mortality during the pandemic have not been addressed in detail. Here, we performed an observational study crossing daily mortality data collected in Portugal (SICO/DGS) with high-resolution temperature series (ERA5/ECMWF), characterizing their relation in the pre-pandemic, and how it aggravated during 2020. The combined result of COVID-19 and extreme temperatures caused the largest annual mortality burden in recent decades (~ 12 000 excess deaths [~ 11% above baseline]). COVID-19 caused the largest fraction of excess mortality during March to May (62%) and from October onwards (85%). During summer, its direct impact was residual, and deaths not reported as COVID-19 dominated excess mortality (553 versus 3 968). A prolonged hot spell led mortality to the upper tertile, reaching its peak in mid-July (+ 45% deaths/day). The lethality ratio (+ 14 deaths per cumulated ºC) was higher than that observed in recent heatwaves. We used a statistical model to estimate expected deaths due to cold/heat, indicating an amplification of at least 50% in heat-related deaths during 2020 compared to pre-pandemic years. Our findings suggest mortality during 2020 has been indirectly amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the disruption of healthcare systems and fear of population in attending healthcare facilities (expressed in emergency room admissions decreases). While lockdown measures and healthcare systems reorganization prevented deaths directly related to the virus, a significant burden due to other causes represents a strong secondary impact. This was particularly relevant during summer hot spells, when the lethality ratio reached magnitudes not experienced since the 2003 heatwaves. This severe amplification of heat-related mortality during 2020 stresses the need to resume normal healthcare services and public health awareness.
High ambient temperatures pose a significant risk to health. This study investigates the heatwave mortality in the summer of 2020 during the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and related countermeasures. The heatwaves in 2020 caused more deaths than have been reported since the Heatwave Plan for England was introduced in 2004. The total and cause-specific mortality in 2020 was compared to previous heatwave events in England. The findings will help inform summer preparedness and planning in future years as society learns to live with COVID-19. Heatwave excess mortality in 2020 was similar to deaths occurring at home, in hospitals, and in care homes in the 65+ years group, and was comparable to the increases in previous years (2016-2018). The third heatwave in 2020 caused significant mortality in the younger age group (0-64) which has not been observed in previous years. Significant excess mortality was observed for cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and Alzheimer’s and Dementia across all three heatwaves in persons aged 65+ years. There was no evidence that the heatwaves affected the proportional increase of people dying at home and not seeking heat-related health care. The most significant spike in daily mortality in August 2020 was associated with a period of high night-time temperatures. The results provide additional evidence that contextual factors are important for managing heatwave risks, particularly the importance of overheating in dwellings. The findings also suggest more action is also needed to address the vulnerability in the community and in health care settings during the acute response phase of a heatwave.
Hydrometeorological hazards comprise a wide range of events, mainly floods, storms, droughts, and temperature extremes. Floods account for the majority of the related disasters in both developed and developing countries. Flooding alters the natural balance of the environment and frequently establish a favorable habitat for pathogens and vectors to thrive. Diseases caused by pathogens that require vehicle transmission from host to host (waterborne) or a host/vector as part of their life cycle (vector-borne) are those most likely to be affected by flooding. Considering the most notable recent destructive floods events of July 2021 that affected several Central Europe countries, we conducted a systematic literature review in order to identify documented sporadic cases and outbreaks of infectious diseases in humans in Europe, where hydrometeorological hazards, mainly floods, were thought to have been involved. The occurrence of water-, rodent-, and vector-borne diseases in several European countries is highlighted, as flooding and the harsh post-flood conditions favor their emergence and transmission. In this context, strategies for prevention and management of infectious disease outbreaks in flood-prone and flood-affected areas are also proposed and comprise pre- and post-flood prevention measures, pre- and post-outbreak prevention measures, as well as mitigation actions when an infectious disease outbreak finally occurs. Emphasis is also placed on the collision of floods, flood-related infectious disease outbreaks, and the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, which may result in unprecedented multi-hazard conditions and requires a multi-hazard approach for the effective disaster management and risk reduction.
Several countries have been affected by natural hazards during the COVID-19 pandemic. The combination of the pandemic and natural hazards has led to serious challenges that include financial losses and psychosocial stress. Additionally, this compound disaster affected evacuation decision making, where to evacuate, volunteer participation in mitigation and recovery, volunteer support acceptance, and interest in other hazard risks. This study investigated the impact of COVID-19 on disaster response and recovery from various types of hazards, with regard to preparedness, evacuation, volunteering, early recovery, awareness and knowledge of different types of hazards, and preparedness capacity development. This study targets hazards such as Cyclone Amphan in India, the Kumamoto flood in Japan, Typhoon Rolly in the Philippines, and the California wildfires in the U.S. This study made several recommendations, such as the fact that mental health support must be taken into consideration during COVID-19 recovery. It is necessary to improve the genral condition of evacuation centers in order to encourage people to act immediately. A pandemic situation necessitates a strong communication strategy and campaign with particular regard to the safety of evacuation centers, the necessity of a lockdown, and the duration required for it to reduce the psychological impact. Both national and local governments are expected to strengthen their disaster risk reduction (DRR) capacity, which calls for the multi-hazard management of disaster risk at all levels and across all sectors.
BACKGROUND: The impacts of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and vaccine boosters on the transmission of the largest outbreak of COVID-19 (the fifth wave) in Hong Kong have not been reported. The outbreak, dominated by the Omicron BA.2 subvariant, began to spread substantially after the Spring Festival in February, 2022, when the temperature varied greatly (e.g. a cold surge event). Tightening social distancing measures did not succeed in containing the outbreak until later with the use of rapid antigen tests (RAT) and increased vaccination rates. Temperature has been previously found to have significant impact on the transmissibility. Understanding how the public health interventions influence the number of infections in this outbreak provide important insights on prevention and control of COVID-19 during different seasons. METHODS: We developed a transmission model incorporating stratified immunity with vaccine-induced antibody responses and the daily changes in population mobility, vaccination and weather factors (i.e. temperature and relative humidity). We fitted the model to the daily reported cases detected by either PCR or RAT between 1 February and 31 March using Bayesian statistics, and quantified the effects of individual NPIs, vaccination and weather factors on transmission dynamics. RESULTS: Model predicted that, with the vaccine uptake, social distancing reduced the cumulative incidence (CI) from 58.2% to 44.5% on average. The use of RAT further reduced the CI to 39.0%. Without vaccine boosters in these two months, the CI increased to 49.1%. While public health interventions are important in reducing the total infections, the outbreak was temporarily driven by the cold surge. If the coldest two days (8.5 °C and 8.8 °C) in February were replaced by the average temperature in that month (15.2 °C), the CI would reduce from 39.0% to 28.2%. CONCLUSION: Preventing and preparing for the transmission of COVID-19 considering the change in temperature appears to be a cost-effective preventive strategy to lead people to return to normal life.
Evidence regarding the effects of environmental factors on COVID-19 transmission is mixed. We aimed to explore the associations of air pollutants and meteorological factors with COVID-19 confirmed cases during the outbreak period throughout China. The number of COVID-19 confirmed cases, air pollutant concentrations, and meteorological factors in China from January 25 to February 29, 2020, (36 days) were extracted from authoritative electronic databases. The associations were estimated for a single-day lag as well as moving averages lag using generalized additive mixed models. Region-specific analyses and meta-analysis were conducted in 5 selected regions from the north to south of China with diverse air pollution levels and weather conditions and sufficient sample size. Nonlinear concentration-response analyses were performed. An increase of each interquartile range in PM(2.5), PM(10), SO(2), NO(2), O(3), and CO at lag4 corresponded to 1.40 (1.37-1.43), 1.35 (1.32-1.37), 1.01 (1.00-1.02), 1.08 (1.07-1.10), 1.28 (1.27-1.29), and 1.26 (1.24-1.28) ORs of daily new cases, respectively. For 1°C, 1%, and 1 m/s increase in temperature, relative humidity, and wind velocity, the ORs were 0.97 (0.97-0.98), 0.96 (0.96-0.97), and 0.94 (0.92-0.95), respectively. The estimates of PM(2.5), PM(10), NO(2), and all meteorological factors remained significantly after meta-analysis for the five selected regions. The concentration-response relationships showed that higher concentrations of air pollutants and lower meteorological factors were associated with daily new cases increasing. Higher air pollutant concentrations and lower temperature, relative humidity and wind velocity may favor COVID-19 transmission. Controlling ambient air pollution, especially for PM(2.5), PM(10), NO(2), may be an important component of reducing risk of COVID-19 infection. In addition, as winter months are arriving in China, the meteorological factors may play a negative role in prevention. Therefore, it is significant to implement the public health control measures persistently in case another possible pandemic.
Allergic diseases are increasing globally. Air pollution, climate change, and reduced biodiversity are major threats to human health with detrimental effects on chronic noncommunicable diseases. Outdoor and indoor air pollution and climate change are increasing. Asia has experienced rapid economic growth, a deteriorating environment, and an increase in allergic diseases to epidemic proportions. Air pollutant levels in Asian countries are substantially higher than in developed countries. Moreover, industrial, traffic-related, and household biomass combustion and indoor pollutants from chemicals and tobacco are major sources of air pollutants. We highlight the major components of pollutants and their impacts on respiratory allergies.
Objective To examine countries’engagement with the health impacts of climate change in their formal statements to intergovernmental organizations, and the factors driving engagement. Methods We obtained the texts of countries’annual statements in United Nations (UN) general debates from 2000 to 2019 and their nationally determined contributions at the Paris Agreement in 2016. To measure countries’ engagement, we used a keyword-in-context text search with relevant search terms to count the total number of references to the relationship of health to climate change. We used a machine learning model (random forest predictions) to identify the most important country-level predictors of engagement. The predictors included political and economic factors, health outcomes, climate change-related variables and membership of political negotiating groups in the UN. Findings For both UN general debate statements and nationally determined contributions, low-and middle-income countries discussed the health impacts of climate change much more than did high-income countries. The most important predictors of engagement were health outcomes (infant mortality, maternal deaths, life expectancy), countries’ income levels (gross domestic product per capita), and fossil fuel consumption. Membership of political negotiating groups (such as the Group of 77 and Small Island Developing States) was a less important predictor. Conclusion Our analysis indicated a higher engagement in countries that carry the heaviest climate-related health burdens, but lack necessary resources to address the impacts of climate change. These countries are shouldering responsibility for reminding the global community of the implications of climate change for people’s health. Climate change is taking an increasing toll on people’s health. The increase in heatwaves, drought, floods and other climate hazards is increasing the risk of climate-related illness and death as well as reversing gains made in reducing food insecurity and global hunger.1,2 Air pollution, primarily driven by fossil fuel emissions, is the major environmental risk factor for premature death and has impacts on child health and survival.3-5 Highlighting these human impacts is seen as a way of accelerating climate action
Worldwide, over half of the global population is living in urban areas. The metropolitan areas are highly populated and environmentally non-green regions on the planet. In green space regions, plants, grass, and green vegetation prevent soil erosion, absorb air pollutants, provide fresh and clean air, and minimize the burden of diseases. Presently, the entire world is facing a turmoil situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study investigates the effect of the green space environment on air pollutants particulate matter PM2.5, PM10, carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O(3)), incidence and mortality of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in environmentally highly green and less-green countries. We randomly selected 17 countries based on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) data. The 60% of the EPI score is based on seven categories: biodiversity and habitat, ecosystem, fisheries, climate change, pollution emissions, agriculture, and water resources. However, 40% of the score is based on four categories: air quality, sanitation and drinking water, heavy metals, and waste management. The air pollutants and SARS-CoV-2 cases and deaths were recorded from 25 January 2020, to 11 July 2021. The air pollutants PM2.5, PM10, CO, and O(3) were recorded from the metrological websites, Air Quality Index-AQI, 2021. The COVID-19 daily cases and deaths were obtained from the World Health Organization. The result reveals that air pollutants mean values for PM2.5 110.73 ± 1.09 vs. 31.35 ± 0.29; PM10 80.43 ± 1.11 vs. 17.78 ± 0.15; CO 7.92 ± 0.14 vs. 2.35 ± 0.03 were significantly decreased (p < 0.0001) in environmentally highly green space countries compared to less-green countries. Moreover, SARS-CoV-2 cases 15,713.61 ± 702.42 vs. 3445.59 ± 108.09; and deaths 297.56 ± 11.27 vs. 72.54 ± 2.61 were also significantly decreased in highly green countries compared to less-green countries. The green environment positively impacts human wellbeing. The policymakers must implement policies to keep the living areas, surroundings, towns, and cities clean and green to minimize air pollution and combat the present pandemic of COVID-19.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to expand, while the relationship between weather conditions and the spread of the virus remains largely debatable. In this paper, we attempt to examine this question by employing a flexible econometric model coupled with fine-scaled hourly temperature variations and a rich set of covariates for 291 cities in the Chinese mainland. More importantly, we combine the baseline estimates with climate-change projections from 21 global climate models to understand the pandemic in different scenarios. We found a significant negative relationship between temperatures and caseload. A one-hour increase in temperatures from 25 degrees C to 28 degrees C tends to reduce daily cases by 15.1%, relative to such an increase from -2 degrees C to 1 degrees C. Our results also suggest an inverted U-shaped nonlinear relationship between relative humidity and confirmed cases. Despite the negative effects of heat, we found that rising temperatures induced by climate change are unlikely to contain a hypothesized pandemic in the future. In contrast, cases would tend to increase by 10.9% from 2040 to 2059 with a representative concentration pathway (RCP) of 4.5 and by 7.5% at an RCP of 8.5, relative to 2020, though reductions of 1.8% and 18.9% were projected for 2080-2099 for the same RCPs, respectively. These findings raise concerns that the pandemic could worsen under the climate-change framework.
Australia’s summer bushfires of 2020-2021 were catastrophic, negatively impacting people, and the natural environment. This climate change-related event exacerbated the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health. Young people are a priority population whose health and livelihoods are significantly impacted by these events. At the same time, young people are active agents for climate action. This exploratory mixed-method study draws on descriptive analyses of survey data (n = 46) and thematic analyses of interview data (n = 6) which demonstrated that some young people, whilst concerned about existential and real impacts of climate change, use contact with nature to cope and as motivation for taking climate actions.
BACKGROUND: From November 2019 to January 2020, eastern Australia experienced the worst bushfires in recorded history. Two months later, Sydney and surrounds were placed into lockdown for six weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by ongoing restrictions. Many pregnant women at this time were exposed to both the bushfires and COVID-19 restrictions. OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of exposure to bushfires and pandemic restrictions on perinatal outcomes. METHODS: The study included 60 054 pregnant women who gave birth between November 2017 and December 2020 in South Sydney. Exposure cohorts were based on conception and birthing dates: 1) bushfire late pregnancy, born before lockdown; 2) bushfires in early-mid pregnancy, born during lockdown or soon after; 3) conceived during bushfires, lockdown in second trimester; 4) conceived after bushfires, pregnancy during restrictions. Exposure cohorts were compared with pregnancies in the matching periods in the two years prior. Associations between exposure cohorts and gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, hypertension, stillbirth, mode of birth, birthweight, preterm birth and small for gestational age were assessed using generalised estimating equations, adjusting for covariates. RESULTS: A decrease in low birth weight was observed for cohort 1 (aOR 0.81, 95%CI 0.69, 0.95). Conversely, cohort 2 showed an increase in low birth weight, and increases in prelabour rupture of membranes, and caesarean sections (aOR 1.18, 95%CI 1.03, 1.37; aOR 1.21, 95%CI 1.07, 1.37; aOR 1.10 (1.02, 1.18) respectively). Cohort 3 showed an increase in unplanned caesarean sections and high birth weight babies (aOR 1.15, 95%CI 1.04, 1.27 and aOR 1.16, 95%CI 1.02, 1.31 respectively), and a decrease in gestational diabetes mellitus was observed for both cohorts 3 and 4. CONCLUSION: Pregnancies exposed to both severe climate events and pandemic disruptions appear to have increased risk of adverse perinatal outcomes beyond only experiencing one event, but further research is needed.
Henan Province in Central China was hit by unprecedented, rain-triggered floods in July 2021 and experienced a recurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study aims to identify the latent profiles of psychological status and acceptance of change among Henan residents who have been cumulatively exposed to these floods and the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 977 participants were recruited. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to explore underlying patterns of psychological status (i.e., perceived risk of the COVID-19 pandemic, post-traumatic stress symptoms, anxiety and rumination) and acceptance of change. The predictors were evaluated with multinomial logistic regression. LPA identified four patterns of psychological status and acceptance of change: high distress/high acceptance (5.1%), moderate distress/moderate acceptance (20.1%), mild distress/mild acceptance (45.5%), and resilience (29.3%). The additive impact of the floods and COVID-19 pandemic and negative emotion during the floods were the risk factors, while flood coping efficacy, trust, and a closer psychological distance change were the protective factors. The present study therefore provides novel evidence on psychological status after both a natural disaster and a major public health event. The cumulative effects of the floods and the COVID-19 pandemic may have heightened the risk of post-disaster maladaptation. A complex relationship between psychological outcomes and acceptance of change was also found. The findings of this study thus provide a foundation for both disaster management and psychological assistance for particular groups.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, wearing masks, vaccinations, and maintaining a safe distance has become social behaviors advocated by the government and widely adopted by the public. At the same time, unpredictable natural disaster risks brought by extreme climate change compound difficulties during epidemics and cause systemic risks that influence the existing pattern of epidemic prevention. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the effect of natural disaster risk caused by climate change on the response to outbreaks in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic. This study will focus on individual-level epidemic prevention behaviors, taking as an example the significant risk of severe destructive flooding caused by heavy rains in Henan, China, on July 20, 2021, which claimed 398 lives, to explore the effect of floods on the preventive behaviors of residents in the hardest hit areas against COVID-19. Through the multi-stage stratified random sampling of the affected residents in Zhengzhou, Xinxiang, Hebi, Luoyang, Anyang, and other cities in Henan Province, 2,744 affected people were surveyed via questionnaires. Through the linear regression model and moderating effect analysis, the study found that after floods, the individual’s flood risk perception and response behaviors significantly correlated with the individual’s prevention behaviors against COVID-19. Specifically, both flood risk perception and response behaviors strengthened the individual’s prevention behaviors. Furthermore, the study also found that community risk preparation behavior and social capital can moderate the above relationship to a certain extent. The research can guide risk communication under the compound risk scenario and prevent risky public behavior under the consistent presence of COVID-19 in the community.
