Filenews 4 February 2021 - by Andrea Demetriou
A study on how the virus's communicability is affected by climatic conditions was published by two professors from the University of Nicosia, Dimitris Drikakis and Talib Dbouk. The results of this study showed that the lack of inclusion of climatic factors in epidemiological data may leave a gap in which the effects of virus transmission are dramatic.
In communication with Professor Dimitris Drikakis with associated with Filenews, he said that "when we have high temperature and low humidity the virus survives less. If we have enough moisture or temperatures are as low as they are these months, it helps the virus to maintain. This is a factor that needs to be taken very seriously in all the simulations that epidemiological models".
At the same time as he explained "the big differences will happen when we have changes in seasons, i.e. when we go from hot months to colder and vice versa, as well as when humidity changes. These factors because they are combined, i.e. wind, temperature and humidity, one should see in that time period how these three data are combined. Of course we can't know what weather we're going to have two months from now, but we know there's going to be a change in seasonal conditions. To put it more simply, we knew that in September when we were entering the winter months, the temperature would be lower and the humidity higher. There, therefore, the measures will have to be intensified in a somewhat different way than in the summer months. That is why in various countries in northern and central Europe this has not been taken into account."
He also noted that epidemiological studies did not take the issue of weather into account either. "There has been a hypothesis that the weather helps, if it is cold for example in the flu, but in the case of the pandemic we did not do anything special like take this into account and increase for the social distance. We know that when there is wind, the distance cannot be two meters, because when we are in an external environment saliva particles spread beyond two meters. We have done a study published in May 2020 that showed that the World Health Organisation guidelines were not correct and many countries started changing them. When a winter month has stormy weather, you have to take that into account when you're out. So that's what we said with this study, namely how epidemiological data should take these factors into account if we want more accurate simulations."
"If someone is a carrier of the virus, the air will help to increase the distance at which the particles will go. The temperature will help to evaporate the particles, i.e. if there is heat in the summer they will evaporate much faster so the risk is reduced," he pointed out.
Asked if he knows the Ministry of Health about this research and its findings, Mr. Drikakis said that "I have not sent the investigation to the Ministry. I will be happy to help the work of the Ministry and the scientific team whenever I am asked."
