Will Coronavirus Happen Every Year Like The Flu? | FiveThirtyEight
The factors that make some viruses seasonal are complicated and, in some ways, still kind of a mystery, said Wan Yang, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University. Heat does play a role, she said. Viruses tend to survive better in cold kinda the opposite of how bacteria do better in warmth. That s why we have more food poisoning in summer, she said.
But humidity turns out to be a bigger player here. It comes down to physics, much of which researchers are still trying to understand, said Spencer Fox, a data scientist who has published research on the seasonality of the flu and the epidemiology of viruses. A virus like the flu spreads when people sneeze and spray aerosolized droplets of gunk and virus into the air. Humidity affects how long those droplets hang out where other humans can breathe them in.