Tiny particles of soot may have resulted in a 20 percent increase in coronavirus infections in counties across California, Oregon and Washington amid record-breaking wildfires last year.
Smoke pollution from wildfires ravaging through the western part of the U.S. has likely caused an increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths in several states, according to a new study.found that tiny particles of soot known PM2.5s may have resulted in a 20 percent increase in coronavirus infections in counties across California, Oregon and Washington amid record-breaking wildfires last year.
"Combining wildfires with this pandemic can have a really disastrous effect. It's disturbing," Francesca Dominici, a professor at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health who co-authored the research,"In some counties the association was very strong indeed – on days with lots of wildfire smoke the Covid cases went up by a lot."
The largest surge of coronavirus cases linked to wildfire smoke was found in Butte County, California, and Whitman, Washington. Calaveras, California, had the highest rise in COVID-19 deaths, according to the study. "We only looked at counties in the west but I'd speculate that it doesn't matter where you are, if you are getting high levels of PM2.5 from wildfire smoke in New York, you will get the same catastrophic effect," Dominici said."It's very concerning. I'd say to anyone living in a place affected by wildfires to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Longer-term, this shows us, yet again, the importance of fighting climate change.
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