A new study that links wildfire smoke with rising COVID-19 infections and deaths did not surprise local experts, who said the findings reinforce the precautions taken by individuals and policy makers in the Bay Area and California.
The authors of a Harvard University study said they found evidence linking smoke from wildfires in California, Oregon and Washington in 2020 to rising COVID cases and deaths. They said that smoke carries with it fine particulate matter — or PM 2.5, known to have adverse effects on health — which acts as a vehicle for spreading infection even faster and making existing cases worse.
Local experts called it an important study that has implications not only for individual behavior but on climate change policy.
Dr. John Balmes warned of the potential link more than a year ago. He is a professor of medicine at University of California at San Francisco and, since 2008, has been the physician member of the California Air Resources Board.
In July 2020, Balmes told NPR there was already evidence suggesting that people infected with COVID who are exposed to PM 2.5 have higher risk of severe infection and death.
“I was telling people last summer was that they should try to reduce exposure as much as possible,” he said in an interview.
In his capacity on CARB, Balmes recognizes the larger implications the study raises.
“If all of these wildfires don’t convince people that we have a climate emergency, I don’t know what will,” he said.
“We really need to double down on policies to get to clean transportation and get to clean energy,” he said. “We’re doing this in California, but we need the rest of the world to join us.”
The global implications also concern Dr. Mary Prunicki, director of air pollution and health research at the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University.
“The biggest takeaway is the ripple effect on climate change,” Prunicki said, calling it perhaps “the greatest health challenge of our time.”
Prunicki said the impact of wildfire smoke goes beyond COVID and will result in complications for everyone who breathes it.
“Wildfire smoke has lots of ways of impacting our health and increasing our susceptibility to COVID and any other type of infections,” she said.
Prunicki called the Harvard study an important one that highlights the need for everyone to take precautions, especially those who have, or have had, COVID.
“But any exposure to smoke will make you more susceptible,” she said. “Everybody needs to be worried about breathing the smoke.”
Simply astounding
I heard you could get covid (also known as the chinese virus ) if you don’t lower the lid on your toilet before you flush it.
“A toilet plume is the dispersal of microscopic particles as a result of flushing a toilet. Normal use of a toilet by healthy people is considered unlikely to be a major health risk. There is indirect evidence that specific pathogens such as norovirus or SARS coronavirus could potentially be spread by toilet aerosols, but as of 2015, no direct experimental studies had clearly demonstrated or refuted actual disease transmission from toilet aerosols. It has been hypothesized that dispersal of pathogens may be reduced by closing the toilet lid before flushing, and by using toilets with lower flush energy. ”
And that is why you close the lid on the toilet. Not because it’s rude, but because flushing sprays poop particles everywhere.
I would also think it could attach itself to pot smoke too. Time to crack down on smoking pot. As I say time to get Get High On Life.
That’s probably one of the ‘smoke’ that they approve of. Idiots!
I understand that 95% of people that got covid also rode in a car!
The potheads absolutely do not care about anyone around them.
@Martin….I’m sure the same could be said about people that drink alcohol, both would be idiotic statements.
I don’t need a Harvard University study to tell me smoke particles exacerbate an upper respiratory tract infection.
if you believe this you are hopeless
#RecallGavinNewsom
THIS JUST IN: New study links thousands of ILLEGALS entering the United States with rising Covid infections.
Utter none sense
If you believe this, you are hopeless.!
Why is this rubbish reprinted?
Utter nonesense.
If you believe this, you are hopeless!
Why is this rubbish reprinted?
REPLY
Yes, wildfires are a hoax. It’s not really smoke in the air. It’s just a little coastal fog blown inland. We refuse to be deceived!
“On average across all counties, the study found that a daily increase of 10 µg/m3 in PM2.5 each day for 28 subsequent days was associated with an 11.7 percent increase in COVID-19 cases, and an 8.4 percent increase in COVID-19 deaths. The biggest effects for cases were in the counties of Sonoma, California, and Whitman, Washington, with 65.3 percent and 71.6 percent increases, respectively. The biggest effects for deaths were in Calaveras, California, and San Bernardino, California, with 52.8 percent and 65.9 percent increases, respectively.”
“Researchers also looked at individual wildfire days and at individual counties to determine the percentage increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths in 2020 compared with what would have been expected with lower levels of PM2.5. They found that Butte, California and Whitman, Washington, had the highest percentage increases in cases (17.3 percent and 18.2 percent, respectively); and that Butte, California, and Calaveras, California, had the highest percentage increases in deaths (41 percent and 137.4 percent, respectively.) In Calaveras, roughly nine COVID-19 deaths would have been expected under lower PM2.5 levels, but the actual number was 22 — which explains the high percentage increase.”
And there’s also a link between Covid and pretty much everything else that the government can think of.
There are those who will believe this baloney.
It’s all propaganda to scare those who refuse to think for themselves.
So COVID HOAX is how climate change is going to kill us all. Al Gore was right. These people are sick.
Think a lot of the increase is from people evacuating to shelters with large groups of people.
Could be as simple as more smoke = less outdoor activity = more people stuck indoors huffing in each others faces.
The virus is going to get you if the virus wants to get you. I’m speaking from current experience. Smoke or no smoke. Vaccinated not vaccinated. Mask or no mask. Six feet apart not six feet apart. Wash your hands or don’t wash your hands. Inside or outside. Disinfect don’t disinfect. I believe the virus DOES NOT CARE.
And the stupidity continues…
…“If all of these wildfires don’t convince people that we have a climate emergency, I don’t know what will,” he said.
Actually, it convinces me that we have a forestry management emergency. As well as severe watershed management issues.
…“We really need to double down on policies to get to clean transportation and get to clean energy,” he said.
Meaning that we are to forfeit more of our money and freedom to a tyrannical big government already drunk on power? No thanks. Keep speaking, though, oh exalted one! There are plenty of sheep out there that are willing to follow.
WE ARE ALL DOOMED !!
People in FEAR are easier to CONTROL.
The government is telling us how and when to BREATH.
Fire good 👍 No fire bad 👎
The studies and the documentaries were made decades ago We know fire suppression is the real reason for the size and scope of modern day fires.
Not harvesting the trees is damn shame!! Forest Management and water reclamation and storage is vital to our future. The Native Americans did controlled burning of the forest for 10,000 years before we came along and said no more fires chief!
I don’t need no stinking “experts” my eyes work just fine.
I just want to ask the “experts” one question.
How did you get here today?
Remember back when the Northern Spotted Owl was all the rage and so government had to “Protect” “virgin” forests? That’s when things went from bad to worse. The Center for Biological Diversity got rich ( I believe it was originally 3 lawyers) off of suing anyone and everyone who owned forest land.
I actually worked briefly on forest thinning in California back in the 70’s. Controlled-burns, thinning, etc…were all very progressive back then. Native Americans did controlled burns. The fires in California and the West are largely a product of so-called environmentalists preventing forest management. CEQA documents are expensive and time consuming, BTW.
The comments here always are so against anything to help mankind.
Always against clean energy and a safe environment, No mandates for Covid-19 either. I pray that the majority in our country do not believe like you folks or we will be on even more trouble than we are in now. And smoke is not good for us to breathe!!
Incorrect. The comments are generally against overreaching government intrusion into our lives.
It’s even worse when the “experts” (like Fauci) have been caught lying numerous times.
Don’t forget, the first statement of fact Fauci made was a lie: that N95 masks were ineffective, so the public should not bother with them. They probably are ineffective, but Fauci lied to the public so there would be plenty of masks available to hospital staff and first responders.
It’s been nothing but a stream of lies since then.
If blind adoration of a tyrannical government constantly bombarding us with propaganda disguised as ‘science’ is ‘helping’ mankind, then just call the comments ‘a difference of opinion’.
Anonymous: No you are spreading lies. Fauci has not been caught lying many times. When the pandemic first began many errors were made because it was new and people made honest mistakes. N95 masks are the best and are very good. Even the surgical masks are great. You sir are incorrect. Thank goodness most people would agree with me, including our scientific community and all doctors.
It doesn’t matter how many people agree with you popcorn, you’re all wrong. Fauci has been lying since the very beginning about the Chinese Virus, and he has never stopped lying.
It’s probably not the smoke, it’s probably from people staying indoors.
Can we circle back to that study linking a Communist Chinese Military Bioweapons Lab with this virus?