Associations between indoor relative humidity and global COVID-19 outcomes
<jats:p> Globally, the spread and severity of COVID-19 have been distinctly non-uniform. Seasonality was suggested as a contributor to regional variability, but the relationship between weather and COVID-19 remains unclear and the focus of attention has been on outdoor conditions....
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
The Royal Society
2023
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/148446 |
| _version_ | 1811096671124193280 |
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| author | Verheyen, CA Bourouiba, L |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Verheyen, CA Bourouiba, L |
| author_sort | Verheyen, CA |
| collection | MIT |
| description | <jats:p>
Globally, the spread and severity of COVID-19 have been distinctly non-uniform. Seasonality was suggested as a contributor to regional variability, but the relationship between weather and COVID-19 remains unclear and the focus of attention has been on outdoor conditions. Because humans spend most of their time indoors and because most transmission occurs indoors, we here, instead, investigate the hypothesis that
<jats:italic>indoor</jats:italic>
climate—particularly
<jats:italic>indoor</jats:italic>
relative humidity (RH)—may be the more relevant modulator of outbreaks. To study this association, we combined population-based COVID-19 statistics and meteorological measurements from 121 countries. We rigorously processed epidemiological data to reduce bias, then developed and experimentally validated a computational workflow to estimate indoor conditions based on outdoor weather data and standard indoor comfort conditions. Our comprehensive analysis shows robust and systematic relationships between regional outbreaks and indoor RH. In particular, we found intermediate RH (40–60%) to be robustly associated with better COVID-19 outbreak outcomes (versus RH < 40% or >60%). Together, these results suggest that indoor conditions, particularly indoor RH, modulate the spread and severity of COVID-19 outbreaks.
</jats:p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:47:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/148446 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:47:12Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publisher | The Royal Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1484462023-03-10T03:01:49Z Associations between indoor relative humidity and global COVID-19 outcomes Verheyen, CA Bourouiba, L Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering <jats:p> Globally, the spread and severity of COVID-19 have been distinctly non-uniform. Seasonality was suggested as a contributor to regional variability, but the relationship between weather and COVID-19 remains unclear and the focus of attention has been on outdoor conditions. Because humans spend most of their time indoors and because most transmission occurs indoors, we here, instead, investigate the hypothesis that <jats:italic>indoor</jats:italic> climate—particularly <jats:italic>indoor</jats:italic> relative humidity (RH)—may be the more relevant modulator of outbreaks. To study this association, we combined population-based COVID-19 statistics and meteorological measurements from 121 countries. We rigorously processed epidemiological data to reduce bias, then developed and experimentally validated a computational workflow to estimate indoor conditions based on outdoor weather data and standard indoor comfort conditions. Our comprehensive analysis shows robust and systematic relationships between regional outbreaks and indoor RH. In particular, we found intermediate RH (40–60%) to be robustly associated with better COVID-19 outbreak outcomes (versus RH < 40% or >60%). Together, these results suggest that indoor conditions, particularly indoor RH, modulate the spread and severity of COVID-19 outbreaks. </jats:p> 2023-03-09T14:38:05Z 2023-03-09T14:38:05Z 2022-11 2023-03-09T14:32:49Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/148446 Verheyen, CA and Bourouiba, L. 2022. "Associations between indoor relative humidity and global COVID-19 outcomes." Journal of The Royal Society Interface, 19 (196). en 10.1098/rsif.2021.0865 Journal of The Royal Society Interface Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf The Royal Society The Royal Society |
| spellingShingle | Verheyen, CA Bourouiba, L Associations between indoor relative humidity and global COVID-19 outcomes |
| title | Associations between indoor relative humidity and global COVID-19 outcomes |
| title_full | Associations between indoor relative humidity and global COVID-19 outcomes |
| title_fullStr | Associations between indoor relative humidity and global COVID-19 outcomes |
| title_full_unstemmed | Associations between indoor relative humidity and global COVID-19 outcomes |
| title_short | Associations between indoor relative humidity and global COVID-19 outcomes |
| title_sort | associations between indoor relative humidity and global covid 19 outcomes |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/148446 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT verheyenca associationsbetweenindoorrelativehumidityandglobalcovid19outcomes AT bourouibal associationsbetweenindoorrelativehumidityandglobalcovid19outcomes |