Transcript
Hi Brian,
Your recent video in which you mentioned a $50 EPA million grant to study covid-19 and pollution got me wondering.
So, I did some googling (covid-19+pollution+study) and found that there actually is real scientific research to be done on the link between covid-19 and pollution.
According to a BBC news article, a 2003 study found that for Sars, an earlier coronavirus, victims were 84% more likely to die if they lived in areas with polluted air.
If this pattern carries over to Covid-19, this might explain why covid-19 deaths were higher in New York City than in some more rural areas.
On the one hand, knowing that pollution may exacerbate covid-19 might make us feel bad because it might make covid-19 deaths feel less random.
On the other hand, if it is true, it could be seen as a positive for those who live in less polluted areas and it could affect how we weight covid-19 trade-offs.
The BBC article I mentioned also links to one of the previously published studies for more details.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200427-how-air-pollution-exacerbates-covid-19
I don’t know if that makes you feel any better about the money the government proposes to spend, but I was glad to learn that there was a least a rationale for the study.