COVID-19 and air pollution

1)When looking at the number of deaths per million of population from COVID-19, then Spain with 374, Italy with 338 and Belgium with 337 are the three highest in the world (only Andorra and San Marino have higher figures, but they have very small populations). Apart from exposure to the virus, the three countries also have poor air quality (see below).

Belgium has the most new asthma patients due to air pollution in Europe
https://www.brusselstimes.com/all-news/ ... in-europe/

Northern Italy has very high levels of air pollution from industrial sources, similar to Wuhan.
“For Italy, especially the northern part of Italy, the air pollution comes from emissions of the industry and transport. In the winter season, the weather conditions are very unfavorable due to temperature inversion that prevents the air pollution from dispersing in the higher layers of the atmosphere.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/emanuelaba ... 71c3358fde

Spain is also seeing a higher level of mortality with COVID-19, which could be explained by the higher levels of air pollution.
15 million Spaniards are breathing air the EU considers polluted
https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2018/ ... 14634.html
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=213789


2)The countries that have learnt from the SARS virus have fewer cases of Coronavirus and fewer deaths, yet the two countries with the highest death rate amongst this group, Indonesia and the Philippines, both have poor air quality.

Countries that learnt from the SARS virus like Taiwan (393 cases and 6 deaths) also have lower numbers, even though they didn't have as much warning, due to the WHO.
The following figures were those published on https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ on Sat Apr 11, 2020 3:38 pm.

S.Korea 10,480 cases and 211 deaths; Australia 6,292 cases and 56 deaths (a lot of cases were from cruise ships); Japan 6,005 cases and 99 deaths; Malaysia 4,530 cases and 73 deaths; Thailand 2,518 cases and 35 deaths; Singapore 2,108 cases and 7 deaths; New Zealand 1,312 and 4 deaths; Hong Kong 1,001 cases and 4 deaths; Vietnam 258 cases no deaths;
Brunei 136 cases and 1 death (I visited Brunei and even just after SARS they were screening people's temperature and anyone with a high temperature had to go back onto the plane). Indonesia with 3,842 cases and 327 deaths, plus the Philippines with 4,428 cases and 247 deaths have both suffered from very poor air pollution. In Indonesia this is due the burning of rain forest for Oil Palm plantations and in the Philippines due to traffic.
https://airqualitynews.com/2019/09/25/i ... pollution/
https://ecowarriorprincess.net/2019/03/ ... o-be-done/

3) The Gwent valleys has been a hot spot in Wales and this is also an area with poor air quality. The area has had Wales most polluted street, where residents wish their homes would be torn down and toxic waste was burned at the Shanks Chemicals incinerator (previously known as Rechem) for decades. Furthermore, due to the topography of the area and the South Westerly prevailing wind being almost at 90 degrees to the valleys, temperature inversions can trap polluted air in the valley floor, where the residential areas exist.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wale ... s-16372961
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/1902269.stm

IMHO the three examples above point to a link between long term air pollution and the number of deaths from COVID-19.

Belgium has now overtaken Italy with 359 deaths per million population, to Italy's 348, while Spain has 390.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Belgium has now overtaken Italy with 359 deaths per million population, to Italy's 348, while Spain has 390.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

It will be down to when social distancing was introduced, and how well it has been observed in those countries/areas, if it's already got a strong foothold in an area before the lockdown it will still continue to spread quicker until the measures have months to stop the spread.

The countries that have done best are the ones that locked down quickest and stopped the virus spreading early, although it's only the first wave anyway and will reemerge when lockdowns are lifted.

A factor would be the state of peoples lungs, smokers, vapers, dopeheads and people in polluted areas would probably have a lower survival rate, but Smokers more so than air pollution.

Belgium has now overtaken Italy with 359 deaths per million population, to Italy's 348, while Spain has 390.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

It will be down to when social distancing was introduced, and how well it has been observed in those countries/areas, if it's already got a strong foothold in an area before the lockdown it will still continue to spread quicker until the measures have months to stop the spread.

The countries that have done best are the ones that locked down quickest and stopped the virus spreading early, although it's only the first wave anyway and will reemerge when lockdowns are lifted.

A factor would be the state of peoples lungs, smokers, vapers, dopeheads and people in polluted areas would probably have a lower survival rate, but Smokers more so than air pollution.

If you look at the countries who learnt from SARS, they have a much lower number of cases, but the two with much higher death rates have poor air quality. Furthermore, the countries with poor air quality in Europe have the highest number of deaths per million population. While reducing the spread of the virus is also a factor, it doesn't appear to reduce the death rate in countries with poor air quality. If Belgium and the Netherlands are compared, they are adjacent; Belgium has a smaller population; Belgium has a much stricter lock down; but Belgium has higher air pollution levels. Therefore, apart from the air pollution the number of deaths/m would be expected to be lower in Belgium, yet it is more MORE THAN DOUBLE THAT OF THE NETHERLANDS. Belgium has 383 deaths per million and the Netherlands has 183 deaths per million. IMHO if the figures were the other way around, it would look like the figures just reflected the higher population and stricter lock down. However, as the figures reflect the opposite, that is significant, hence my link with air pollution.
As for your theory on smokers, dopeheads etc, they are present everywhere, but especially in the Netherlands with it's Brown Bars and Cannabis Cafe's, yet they have less than half the number of deaths/m than Belgium, which has a smaller population and stricter lock down. Therefore, air pollution would appear to be significantly more of a factor than smoking.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-52135814
https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... tudy-finds

Belgium has now overtaken Spain with the highest number of deaths per million for a sizeable country with 419/m (Andorra with 427,m from 33 deaths and San Marino with 1,120 from 38 deaths are the only countries with higher figures. However, a relatively small cluster of deaths can produce very high death rates/m, as both countries have small populations). Belgium is the 12th worst country in the world for air quality (see second link below). However, all the countries listed above Belgium are still countries with a universal BCG program and a recent study suggests rates SIX TIMES LOWER FOR COUNTRIES WITH A UNIVERSAL BCG PROGRAM (see third,fourth and fifth links below).


Reported Cases and Deaths by Country, Territory, or Conveyance
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Worldwide Air Quality: Air Quality Rankings
https://aqicn.org/rankings/

BCG jabs mean you are six times less likely to get coronavirus, study finds
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/0 ... udy-finds/

The BCG World Atlas: A Database of Global BCG Vaccination Policies and Practices
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3062527/

BCG JABS MEAN YOU ARE 6 TIMES LESS LIKELY TO GET VIRUS
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=214168

Air pollution linked to raised Covid-19 death risk

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-52351290