As we learn more of the effects of air pollution and how detrimental it can be towards people’s health, an article in the New York Times called “New Research Links Air Pollution To Higher Coronavirus Death Rates” by Lisa Friedman, explains how they believe COVID-19 may have targeted more people who live in areas with very high air pollution. They explained the fact people were more likely to die from catching the infection in areas with higher air pollution than “cleaner parts of the country”. Health officials have found a “link between dirty air and death or serious illness from COVID-19…” They revealed that longer exposure to air pollution increases someone’s chances in experiencing the effects and symptoms of CoronaVirus. Despite this conversation becoming more of a topic during these times, another topic that has come up throughout the media is the decrease of air pollution due to social distancing for the CoronaVirus. These topics both seem to contradict themselves but they are more interconnected than you think. Now there are less people on the streets, less cars being driven and less one on one contact, air pollution levels have lowered, water has cleared in oceans due to less boats being sailed. Despite the negatives that people associate COVID-19 to there have been some positives and that is the way we are treating the earth.
Nytimes.com. 2020. New Research Links Air Pollution To Higher Coronavirus Death Rates. [online] Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/climate/air-pollution-coronavirus-covid.html> [Accessed 21 April 2020].