It’s still unclear how warmer weather will impact the novel coronavirus. But one study has the director of the National Institutes of Health advising people to still practice social distancing during the summer.
In a blog post Tuesday, Dr. Francis Collins looked at the “sobering predictions” of a study by the Princeton Environmental Institute recently published in the journal Science.
“This research team found that humans’ current lack of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 — not the weather — will likely be a primary factor driving the continued, rapid spread of the novel coronavirus this summer and into the fall,” Collins wrote.
Based on the study, climate will only become a seasonal factor once a large number of people in a community are immune, he added.
There is one “glimmer of hope,” according to Collins: One of the team’s models found that physical distancing, along with warm temperatures, “actually might combine well to help slow the spread of this devastating virus,” he wrote.
“It’s a reminder that physical distancing will remain our best weapon into the summer to slow or prevent the spread of COVID-19,” he added.
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