Frontiers in public health vol. 8 554964. 22 Dec. 2020, doi:10.3389/fpubh.2020.554964

Ohio State University, Columbus

SARS-CoV-2 is a branch of the SARS-Cov family. It is spherical and enveloped with club-shaped spikes on the surface. Thus, it has the shape of a solar corona. Inside the nucleoplasm, the virus has single-strand RNA, which stores the genetic information of this virus. Due to the property of protein and RNA, the SARS-CoV-2 should be sensitive to temperature.

How Temperature Affects the Transmission of COVID-19

There are three possible answers to this question: 
1. Yes, temperature does affect the spread of SARS-CoV-2. There is a positive/negative relationship 
2. No. There is no clue/ there is no significant statistical relationship between temperature and the spread of SARS-CoV-2.
3. We don't know

Did temperature affect the spread of  SARS-CoV-2 VIrus?

Does Temperature Affect COVID-19 Transmission?

Menebo, Mesay Moges. "Temperature and Precipitation Associate with Covid-19 New Daily Cases: A Correlation Study between Weather and Covid-19 Pandemic in Oslo, Norway." Science of the Total Environment, vol. 737, 2020, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139659.

Temperature and Precipitation Associate with Covid-19 New Daily Cases: A Correlation Study between Weather and Covid-19 Pandemic in Oslo, Norway.

Imagine we are investigating two specific objects. In our intuition or subconsciousness, we assume there's some specific relationship between them. Yet, it is possible that there's no correlation at all. In another research, Mecenas et al. Collected data and articles from different journals and websites since the outbreak of COVID, including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, LILACS, OpenGrey, and Google Scholar. 

Analysis of Bias

Paulo Mecenas, et al. "Effects of Temperature and Humidity on the Spread of Covid-19: A Systematic Review." Plos One, vol. 15, no. 9, 2020. INSERT-MISSING-DATABASE-NAME, INSERT-MISSING-SERVICE-NAME, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0238339. Accessed 14 June 2021.

Effects of Temperature and Humidity on the Spread of Covid-19: A Systematic Review.

The major component of SARS-CoV-2 is protein, and protein may denature in high temperatures. Yet, what is "high temperature"? It may have a wide range. Sometimes, the interaction of the peptide bond may be affected at 41 Celcius. However, they will not denature completely until 101 Celcius (Chemistry Explained, 2020) for some proteins. And according to the research of NIH, if we want to kill coronavirus with high temperature, we need to expose it at least 3 minutes when the surrounding temperature is 75 Celcius or 5 minutes when the temperature is 65 Celcius, and 20 minutes when the temperature is 60 Celcius and above (Abraham et al., 2020). It is rare (even impossible) to reach 60 Celcius degrees in our daily life.

How Does Temperature Affect SARS-Cov-2 VIrus Itself?

Bu J, Peng D, Xiao H, et al. Analysis of meteorological conditions and prediction of epidemic trend of 2019-nCoV infection in 2020. medRxiv: 20022715v1 [Preprint]. 2020. Available from: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.13.20022715v1.

Analysis of meteorological conditions and prediction of epidemic trend of 2019-nCoV infection in 2020

First, cold weather might be more suitable for coronavirus to survive (Araújo, Naimi, 2020). Second, cold weather may force vasoconstriction of the respiratory tract and weaken the immune system at the same time. Plus, cold air may cause small ruptures on mucosa and foster the proliferation of the virus (Bu et al., 2020). What's more, cold weather is always accompanied by other diseases, like flu. And these diseases may trigger the development of SARS-CoV-2. So, cold weather should play a role in the transmission of COVID-19.

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