Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34627471›Full record

ArticleThe Lancet. Planetary health2021

Weather, air pollution, and SARS-CoV-2 transmission: a global analysis.

Ran Xu, Hazhir Rahmandad, Marichi Gupta, Catherine DiGennaro, Navid Ghaffarzadegan, Heresh Amini, Mohammad S Jalali

Open access · goldAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in The Lancet. Planetary health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
50citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
5.9field-weighted citation impact, top 3% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

50 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 80 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Observational
  5. Article
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  20. Effects of fine particulate matter (PMCase studies in chemical and environmental engineering · 2023
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.

Ran XuDepartment of Allied Health Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA.
Hazhir RahmandadSloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Marichi GuptaInstitute for Technology Assessment, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Catherine DiGennaroInstitute for Technology Assessment, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Navid GhaffarzadeganDepartment of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, Falls Church, VA, USA.
Heresh AminiDepartment of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Mohammad S JalaliInstitute for Technology Assessment, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; MGH Institute for Technology Assessment, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: msjalali@mgh.harvard.edu.
Massachusetts General Hospital · USHarvard University · USMassachusetts Institute of Technology · USUniversity of Connecticut · USUniversity of Copenhagen · DKVirginia Tech · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundUnderstanding how environmental factors affect SARS-CoV-2 transmission could inform global containment efforts. Despite high scientific and public interest and multiple research reports, there is currently no consensus on the association of environmental factors and SARS-CoV-2 transmission. To address this research gap, we aimed to assess the relative risk of transmission associated with weather conditions and ambient air pollution.

methodsIn this global analysis, we adjusted for the delay between infection and detection, estimated the daily reproduction number at 3739 global locations during the COVID-19 pandemic up until late April, 2020, and investigated its associations with daily local weather conditions (ie, temperature, humidity, precipitation, snowfall, moon illumination, sunlight hours, ultraviolet index, cloud cover, wind speed and direction, and pressure data) and ambient air pollution (ie, PM

findingsOur dataset included data collected between Dec 12, 2019, and April 22, 2020. Several weather variables and ambient air pollution were associated with the spread of SARS-CoV-2 across 3739 global locations. We found a moderate, negative relationship between the estimated reproduction number and temperatures warmer than 25°C (a decrease of 3·7% [95% CI 1·9-5·4] per additional degree), a U-shaped relationship with outdoor ultraviolet exposure, and weaker positive associations with air pressure, wind speed, precipitation, diurnal temperature, sulphur dioxide, and ozone. Results were robust to multiple assumptions. Independent research building on our estimates provides strong support for the resulting projections across nations.

interpretationWarmer temperature and moderate outdoor ultraviolet exposure result in a slight reduction in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2; however, changes in weather or air pollution alone are not enough to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2 with other factors having greater effects.

fundingNone.

Indexed as

Air PollutionCOVID-19Global HealthWeatherHumansPandemicsSARS-CoV-2

Identifiers

PMID34627471
PMCPMC8497024
OpenAlexW3201751138

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.