1. Weather and COVID-19 Deaths During the Stay-at-Home Order in the United States
- Author
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Mahdi Majbouri, Kelsey B White, Bert B Little, Seyed M Karimi, Natalie DuPre, and W. Paul McKinney
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,2019-20 coronavirus outbreak ,Demographics ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Ozone concentration ,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ,Physical Distancing ,Air pollution ,county ,medicine.disease_cause ,minimum daily temperature ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,stay-at-home order ,Air pollutants ,death ,medicine ,Humans ,Weather ,Air Pollutants ,US ,business.industry ,SARS-CoV-2 ,Public health ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Temperature ,COVID-19 ,Models, Theoretical ,030210 environmental & occupational health ,United States ,ozone ,ComputingMethodologies_DOCUMENTANDTEXTPROCESSING ,Original Article ,business ,Demography - Abstract
Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text, Objective: To estimate the association between weather and COVID-19 fatality rates during US stay-at-home orders. Methods: With a county-level longitudinal design, this study analyzed COVID-19 deaths from public health departments’ daily reports and considered exposure as the 18 to 22 day-period before death. Models included state-level social distancing measures, Census Bureau demographics, daily weather information, and daily air pollution. The primary measures included minimum and maximum daily temperature, precipitation, ozone concentration, PM2.5 concentrations, and U.V. light index. Results: A 1 °F increase in the minimum temperature was associated with 1.9% (95% CI, 0.2% to 3.6%) increase in deaths 20 days later. An ozone concentration increase of 1 ppb (part per billion) decreased daily deaths by 2.0% (95% CI, 0.1% to 3.6%); ozone levels below 38 ppb negatively correlated with deaths. Conclusions: Increased mobility may drive the observed association of minimum daily temperature on COVID-19 deaths.
- Published
- 2021