Initial investigation of environment vs policy vs social influences on
SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 incidence, propagation, and mortality rates
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 propagated rapidly from a local outbreak to global
scales with associated multi-trillion $ impact on the international
economy and social, economic, and ecological systems. The Pandemic is
currently ongoing and key questions have arisen as to what key factors
determine its incidence, propagation, and mortality rates. Here, we try
to distinguish between concurrent and collocated influences on COVID-19
due to environmental factors (e.g., T, humidity..) compared to policy
actions (e.g., lock downs, slowdowns, open/closed businesses,
transportation), and social practice (e.g., wearing masks, social
distancing). Publicly available data and information from selected
countries/regions around the world are used in this initial analysis.
Preliminary results suggest that policy actions and social practice have
a dominating influence on the propagation and containment (or not) of
COVID-19, possibly enabled by or associated with concomitant
environmental factors.