CALIFORNIA, USA — As the wildfires continue to burn in our area there’s a new concern related to the spread of COVID-19.
At Cal Fire’s Tuesday media briefing, strike team officer Jeff Veik announced that there was an outbreak of COVID-19 the forced 16 firefighters off of the front lines in the fight against the Caldor Fire.
"One more COVID firefighter getting sick could take out our action to protect the communities and people that we are here to serve," Veik said.
That left many people wondering if the poor, smoky air quality could make people especially vulnerable to the virus. So let's verify.
THE QUESTION
Can bad air quality make you more susceptible to COVID?
THE SOURCES
- Mary Prunicki - Director of Air Pollution and Health Research Standford University
- Dr. Justin Chatten-Brown - ER Medical Director at Dignity Health Woodland Memorial Hospital
- Dr Dean Blumberg who specializes in Pediatric Infectious Diseases with UC Davis Health
WHAT WE FOUND
According to Director of Air Pollution and Health Research Standford University Mary Prunicki, bad air quality can make you more susceptible to COVID-19. It's the same reason cigarette smoking is one of the major risk factors for poor outcomes when catching COVID, Prunicki said.
“Yes, and in fact, a study just came out from Harvard showing that when we had the fires [in 2020] in the Bay Area that there’s an association between COVID activity rates and death rates. There’s an association with the level of particulate matter in the air,” Prunicki said.
Dr. Justin Chatten-Brown, ER Medical Director at Dignity Health Woodland Memorial Hospital, said he has significant concerns about the increased rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations going up due to the fires.
“Poor air quality leads to more respiratory illness. So more asthma and COPD patients visiting the emergency department. And these wildfires come at a time when we are already dealing with a huge surge in the COVID-19 delta variant.” Brown said.
Dr. Dean Blumberg, who specializes in Pediatric Infectious Diseases with UC Davis Health, said COVID is not attaching to the smoke and transmitting the virus.
"No, COVID is not attached to the smoke molecules. It is that people are more suspectable to it, so if you come into contact with somebody that is potentially going to transmit it to you, it makes it easier to transmit it to you because your defenses are down," Blumberg said.
So, we can verify that, yes, COVID-19 spreads quicker with poor air quality because people are more vulnerable.
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