Even as vaccinations are due to begin, Europe is struggling with the second wave of the pandemic. The effectiveness of the vaccinations are a little jeopardized by reports that a new, more infectious strain of Covid-19 is sweeping across the UK and is on its way to Europe. Hopefully the vaccines developed in record time will cope even with the new strains of the virus if they are not too dissimilar.
While I welcome the vaccines and will take mine as soon it becomes available to me (probably late February) I am not so foolish, or gullible, as to believe that the science is settled. I have read many, but no convincing explanation, as to where the virus went during the summer of 2020.
The peaks in late spring, followed by the trough during the summer and the new peaks in late autumn are a common feature across all countries. The same pattern appears in countries applying hard lockdowns as in those with less stringent restrictions. It was clearly not the lockdown regimes which restricted the pattern of deaths in the summer. Yes, of course, people spent more time outdoors in the summer. But when Spain and Sweden exhibit the same pattern, this can be no explanation for the reduction in infection rate over the summer.
There is a great deal of speculation but most of it is just speculation.
Seasonal trends in viral infection are driven by multiple factors, including people’s behaviour and the properties of the virus — some don’t like hot, humid conditions.
Laboratory experiments reveal that SARS-CoV-2 favours cold, dry conditions, particularly out of direct sunlight. For instance, artificial ultraviolet radiation can inactivate SARS-CoV-2 particles on surfaces and in aerosols, especially in temperatures of around 40 °C. Infectious virus also degrades faster on surfaces in warmer and more humid environments. ……… To assess whether infections with a particular virus rise and fall with the seasons, researchers typically study its spread in a specific location, multiple times a year, over many years. But without the benefit of time, they have tried to study the seasonal contribution to SARS-CoV-2 transmission by looking at infection rates in various places worldwide.
A study published on 13 October looked at the growth in SARS-CoV-2 infections in the first four months of the pandemic, before most countries introduced controls. It found that infections rose fastest in places with less UV light, and predicted that, without any interventions, cases would dip in summer and peak in winter. In winter, “the risk goes up, but you can still dramatically reduce your risk by good personal behaviour”, says Cory Merow, an ecologist at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, and a co-author of the study. “The weather is a small drop in the pan.” But Francois Cohen, an environmental economist at the University of Barcelona in Spain, says that testing was also quite limited early in the pandemic, and continues to be unreliable, so it is impossible to determine the effect of weather on the spread of the virus so far. ………… If SARS-CoV-2 can survive better in cold conditions, it’s still difficult to disentangle that contribution from the effect of people’s behaviour …. .
The simple reality is that we don’t know where corona viruses go for vacation during European summers and where the Covid-19 virus went during the summer of 2020.
But it is back.
Tags: coronavirus, covid-19
The k2p blog 
December 20, 2020 at 12:18 pm
I think it’s vacationing here in South Africa – it’s our summer -hot and rainy season , but experiencing our second wave ! Go figure !?!