ArticleThe Science of the total environment2020
The spread of 2019-nCoV in China was primarily driven by population density. Comment on "Association between short-term exposure to air pollution and COVID-19 infection: Evidence from China" by Zhu et al.
Article in The Science of the total environment, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed.
- Ambient air pollution exposure and COVID-19 related hospitalizations in Santiago, Chile.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Robust time-series analysis of the effects of environmental factors on the CoViD-19 pandemic in the area of Milan (Italy) in the years 2020-21.Hygiene and environmental health advances · 2022Article
- Cleaning the Flue in Wood-Burning Stoves Is a Key Factor in Reducing Household Air Pollution.Toxics · 2022Article
- Cumulative Impacts and COVID-19: Implications for Low-Income, Minoritized, and Health-Compromised Communities in King County, WA.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2022Article
- Modelling the persistence of Covid-19 positivity rate in Italy.Socio-economic planning sciences · 2022Article
- Disparities of COVID-19 and HIV Occurrence Based on Neighborhood Infection Incidence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.American journal of public health · 2022Article
- Global COVID-19 pandemic trends and their relationship with meteorological variables, air pollutants and socioeconomic aspects.Environmental research · 2022Article
- COVID-19 in New York state: Effects of demographics and air quality on infection and fatality.The Science of the total environment · 2022Article
- The effects of the home-based exercise during COVID-19 school closure on the physical fitness of preschool children in China.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2022Article
- International trade as critical parameter of COVID-19 spread that outclasses demographic, economic, environmental, and pollution factors.Environmental research · 2021Article
- The role of airborne particles and environmental considerations in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2.Geoscience frontiers · 2021Review
- The effect of environmental diesel exhaust pollution on SARS-CoV-2 infection: The mechanism of pulmonary ground glass opacity.Environmental toxicology and pharmacology · 2021Review
- Article
- Understanding small Chinese cities as COVID-19 hotspots with an urban epidemic hazard index.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- The association between air pollution and COVID-19 related mortality in Santiago, Chile: A daily time series analysis.Environmental research · 2021Article
- Multiple relationships between aerosol and COVID-19: A framework for global studies.Gondwana research : international geoscience journal · 2021Article
- Economic Role of Population Density during Pandemics-A Comparative Analysis of Saudi Arabia and China.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Impacts of socio-economic determinants, spatial distance and climate factors on the confirmed cases and deaths of COVID-19 in China.PloS one · 2021Article
- Analysing the impact of global demographic characteristics over the COVID-19 spread using class rule mining and pattern matching.Royal Society open science · 2021Article
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2 authors.
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Abstract
Recently, an article published in the journal Science of the Total Environment and authored by Zhu et al. has claimed the "Association between short-term exposure to air pollution and COVID-19 infection" (doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138704). This note shows that the stated dependence between the diffusion of the infection and air pollution may be the result of spurious correlation due to the omission of a common factor, namely, population density. To this end, the relationship between demographic, socio-economic, and environmental conditions and the spread of the novel coronavirus in China is analyzed with spatial regression models on variables deflated by population size. The infection rate - as measured by the number of cases per 100 thousand inhabitants - is found to be strongly related to the population density. At the same time, the association with air pollution is detected with a negative sign, which is difficult to interpret.
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