COVID-19 Higher Mortality in Chinese Regions With Chronic Exposure to Lower Air Quality

  1. Riccardo Pansini
  2. Davide Fornacca

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Abstract

We investigated the geographical character of the COVID-19 infection in China and correlated it with satellite- and ground-based measurements of air quality. Controlling for population density, we found more viral infections in those prefectures (U.S. county equivalent) afflicted by high Carbon Monoxide, Formaldehyde, PM 2.5, and Nitrogen Dioxide values. Higher mortality was also correlated with relatively poor air quality. When summarizing the results at a greater administrative level, we found that the 10 provinces (U.S. state equivalent) with the highest rate of mortality by COVID-19, were often the most polluted but not the most densely populated. Air pollution appears to be a risk factor for the incidence of this disease, despite the conventionally apprehended influence of human mobility on disease dynamics from the site of first appearance, Wuhan. The raw correlations reported here should be interpreted in a broader context, accounting for the growing evidence reported by several other studies. These findings warn communities and policymakers on the implications of long-term air pollution exposure as an ecological, multi-scale public health issue.

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    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.28.20115832: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your code and data.

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

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    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

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    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

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  2. Version published to 10.3389/fpubh.2020.597753
  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.05.28.20115832v2 on medRxiv
  4. Version published to 10.1101/2020.05.28.20115832v1 on medRxiv