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Novel coronavirus really is seasonal, study suggests
Fox News ^ | May 3, 2021 | Rachael Rettner

Posted on 05/03/2021 7:46:30 PM PDT by DoodleBob

Warm temperatures and tropical climates may really help reduce the spread of COVID-19, a new study suggests.

The study found that places with warm temperatures and long hours of sunlight — such as countries close to the equator and those experiencing summer — had a lower rate of COVID-19 cases, compared with countries farther away from the equator and those experiencing colder weather.

The findings held even after the researchers took into account other factors that could affect both the spread of COVID-19 and the number of reported cases, such as a country's level of urbanization and the intensity of COVID-19 testing.

...

Scientists don't know for sure why these viruses follow a seasonal pattern, but a number of factors are thought to play a role. For example, studies suggest that many respiratory viruses are more stable and linger in the air longer in environments with cold temperatures and low humidity, Live Science previously reported. Human behaviors, such as gathering indoors in wintertime, could also boost transmission.

...

In the new study, the researchers analyzed information from 117 countries, using data on the spread of COVID-19 from the beginning of the pandemic to Jan. 9, 2021. They used statistical methods to examine the relationship between a country's latitude...and its level of COVID-19 spread....

They found that every 1-degree increase in a country's latitude from the equator was tied to a 4.3% increase in the number of COVID-19 cases per million people. This means that if one country is 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) closer to the equator compared with another, the country closer to the equator could expect to have 33% fewer COVID-19 cases per million people, with all other factors being equal between the countries.

(image in source study)

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: covid19; fakenews; seasonalbioweapon; seasonality; springinchina; vaccine
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From the article:

Scientists don't know for sure why these viruses follow a seasonal pattern, but a number of factors are thought to play a role. For example, studies suggest that many respiratory viruses are more stable and linger in the air longer in environments with cold temperatures and low humidity, Live Science previously reported. Human behaviors, such as gathering indoors in wintertime, could also boost transmission.

I posted previously about the SEASONAL DIMENSION to cases and fatalities, and not necessarily a "surge" or a "new strain of the virus" or the results of triple-masking, vaccines, or statist policies.

The majority of deaths in most countries can be attributed to causes that feature a distinct seasonal pattern. The figure depicts the relative monthly frequencies of nine selected causes of death in the United States for women and men combined for the years 1959–2014. The reported number of counts in parentheses in the title of each panel is the actual number of deaths.

Viruses gonna virus. Even non-viruses gonna non-virus.

Let be fair: certainly maladies like polio HAVE been (or nearly) eradicated by vaccines. We can probably put rabies (yes...I know...animals...work with me) and tetanus on that list as well. These are net benefits to society, and a great example of eradication policy making good on its promise.

But let's be honest as well: if COVID19 is akin to influenza insofar as it mutates, abates then returns, afflicts the weak and those with comorbidities, AND (here's the big one) is tamed - but not cured - by "the jab" (annual influenza vaccines have been less than 50% effective for six straight years - last year's batch was 39% effective!!), then an honest discussion should emanate.

This bug isn't polio and "the jab" won't render people immune for life. Promising eradication or even herd immunity via vaccination is like promising an end to world hunger via the UN...

A very likely reality, is that this bug will be with us forever - like influenza, it'll be a highly contagious but more fatal (current US case fatality rate of about 1.8% vs 0.2% for influenza) and seasonal annoyance. When faced with this reality, we should follow the policy prescriptions of a wise FReeper: Quarantine the sick. Protect the vulnerable. Free everyone else.

1 posted on 05/03/2021 7:46:30 PM PDT by DoodleBob
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To: DoodleBob
"Warm temperatures and tropical climates may really help reduce the spread of COVID-19"

Which is why, of course, it is running roughshod through India and Brazil now.

2 posted on 05/03/2021 7:49:31 PM PDT by Andyman (The truth shall make you FReep.)
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To: DoodleBob

Just like the flu, I reckon.


3 posted on 05/03/2021 7:54:17 PM PDT by Jonty30 (Just because I coughed on you does not mean that I have covid. It means that we have covid. )
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To: DoodleBob

Sunshine=Vitamin D=Healthy Immune System.


4 posted on 05/03/2021 8:00:09 PM PDT by BrexitBen
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To: Andyman

Brazil is in Fall right now.


5 posted on 05/03/2021 8:00:33 PM PDT by Basket_of_Deplorables (Convention Of States is our only hope now!)
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To: DoodleBob

We lost our freedom and the republic to an over glorified cold and flu bug!
And many “patriotic conservatives” played right along with it. And still do.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry!!!


6 posted on 05/03/2021 8:07:46 PM PDT by Tipllub
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To: Basket_of_Deplorables

March and April were India’s spring season.


7 posted on 05/03/2021 8:19:51 PM PDT by CaptainK ("If life's really hard, at least its short")
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To: Jonty30
Not quite. More people who get COVID19 die from it vs influenza. Further, using fatality rates of those aged 65-74 as a baseline, the odds of dying from influenza for those aged 75-84 and 85+ are 1.2x and 2.4x greater for influenza but are 2.5x and 6.7x greater for COVID19, respectively. 90% of influenza fatalities rest with those 65+ versus 81% for COVID19.
8 posted on 05/03/2021 8:33:28 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s^2)
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To: DoodleBob; Jane Long; ransomnote; SecAmndmt; Secret Agent Man; Jan_Sobieski; bagster; ...
Scientists don't know for sure why these viruses follow a seasonal pattern, but a number of factors are thought to play a role.

They found that every 1-degree increase in a country's latitude from the equator was tied to a 4.3% increase in the number of COVID-19 cases per million people.

They don’t see the connection.

College educated idiots.

9 posted on 05/03/2021 8:36:38 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith....)
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To: DoodleBob

Quite a shock to find the seasonal flu is seasonal


10 posted on 05/03/2021 8:53:46 PM PDT by JerryBlackwell (some animals are more equal than others)
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To: DoodleBob
Generally true, but I'd make a couple tweaks.

I wouldn't consider Tetanus eradicated. The bacteria causing it is widely present in nature. We can still get it. That vaccine doesn't protect against infection by it, but rather trains our immune system to clear a toxin the bacteria makes, which is what paralyzes and kills us. That vaccine we'll be using forever. Relatively few infectious diseases are considered eradicatable via vaccination. Smallpox was one, polio another (should have been accomplished by now—add it to Bin Laden et al's tab). Measles could and should be the next. Once true eradication is accomplished vaccination stops with neither disease nor side effects in the future.

Rabies is unusual in that most cases process slowly enough for post-exposure vaccination to usually work in humans. But it affects many species including wildlife, which makes it difficult, if not impossible to eradicate. However a cousin of measles, called Rinderpest, affected cattle and many of their wild cousins and was still eradicated. I wish I understood just how. It was arguably the worst of all agricultural diseases. Maybe there is small hope for rabies eradication.

You are quite right about the merely modest protection provided by flu vaccines and that the same mechanisms that limit them apply to coronavirus. They hijack human replicative machinery that lacks error checking, so produce zillions of random mutations some of which dodge our old immunity and sicken us. However, the new Covid mRNA vaccines MAY offer improved protection. Not by producing stronger immune responses, but because they can be produced quicker. Old style vaccines, for seasonal viruses like flu and covid, have to guess months before the season just which strains will dominate the next season. There's time for the virus to mutate into different strains it won't defend well. mRNA vaccine development is significantly faster. Less time for the virus to mutate away from them before the end of the next season. Theoretically results could be better. Now I'd like a LARGE amount of 2020 hindsight data, over some years, to validate that and also to establish their safety profile. There is too dang much politics—from all sides—on this virus for the current data, either way, to be very convincing. But it would be nice if time proves the theory correct.

11 posted on 05/03/2021 8:55:56 PM PDT by JohnBovenmyer
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To: DoodleBob

It may suffer the fate of sars and mers...I.e decrease to very low occurence. Covid 19 seems to be easier to spread than either. I think mers had about 30% death rate. Covid 19 had lower death rate than sars or meds. But way more cases.


12 posted on 05/03/2021 8:57:47 PM PDT by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and diamonds, and harder to find.)
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To: JohnBovenmyer
Thank you one of the more sober replies I've seen lately.

To be clear, I'm not saying the jab is bad or good (that's sort of a different discussion). What I *am* saying, is that pushing eradication as a policy goal is a bad idea. As the mean girl says, it isn't going to happen, and the implicit "promise" of "cure" is not honest.

If we simply said "this thing will be here until The End...deal" I'd be happier.

13 posted on 05/03/2021 9:12:16 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s^2)
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To: DoodleBob

I never thought I would live to see the day where some brainiac doctors would gin up a cold virus into a pandemic and make us deathly afraid of coughing in public.


14 posted on 05/03/2021 9:21:06 PM PDT by Slyfox
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To: Andyman

how many times do you have to be sent back to re-education camp...to get your mind right...

>>Human behaviors, such as gathering indoors in wintertime, could also boost transmission.<<

the converse is probably true too ...in the summertime most would be indoors with A/C going...(depends on where, I guess)


15 posted on 05/03/2021 9:26:07 PM PDT by stylin19a (Golf is a game invented by the same people who think music comes out of a bagpipe.)
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To: Getready

Covid-19 is going to be here forever. Unlike SARS which just disappeared.


16 posted on 05/03/2021 9:27:40 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: BrexitBen

This is the same thing I was thinking.

However, the % of vit D deficient people in the population, even in optimal areas, has skyrocketed with the growth of sun screen use ... almost universal now.

% of people deficient has doubled since the 60s.


17 posted on 05/03/2021 10:26:53 PM PDT by Jackson Brown (Accomplished without a barrier.)
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To: metmom

18 posted on 05/03/2021 10:33:53 PM PDT by Salamander (Salamander has barbaric tendencies.../Gundog)
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To: Jonty30

my first thought as well....also like after the sun goes down illnesses get worse.


19 posted on 05/03/2021 11:05:39 PM PDT by caww ( lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. Matt:24:12)
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To: DoodleBob

Yes this is the common sense conclusion. And the democrat run states will mandate masks foreva.


20 posted on 05/03/2021 11:16:18 PM PDT by kelly4c
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