kovat 19 is still so new that scientists
are learning more about it all the time
and two studies published this month
looking at the link with air pollution
so let's have a look at what they found
in the first study researchers from
Harvard University plotted the most
polluted places in the United States on
to this onto the first map the areas
with the highest particulate pollution
are in red the second map shows deaths
from cove at 19 and where you can just
make out a correlation there in fact
people living in the most polluted areas
are indeed 15 percent more likely to die
from coronavirus than those living in
places where pollution is only slightly
lower now to a separate study which took
which was looking at Italy and it looked
at the regions where coronavirus was
proving most deadly so across Italy as a
whole 4.5% of those known to have caught
koubek 19 died from it this was towards
the end of March but in Lombardy and in
emilia romagna the race of fatality was
far higher around 12% in those areas
with higher death rates are among the
most polluted in Europe
so again there is a correlation but can
we know for sure if there is a link
Gretchen Goldman is from the Union of
Concerned Scientists which advocates for
science-based
policy joining us live now can we is it
just simply too early or do you think we
can categorically state that there is a
link between death rates and air
pollution when it comes to coronavirus
it is early research but this is
compelling evidence that suggests that
air pollution may be playing a role in
what makes covet more deadly and so this
is not to be dismissed I think it's
important research that we need to keep
looking at and keep expanding what we
know and given that it's a respiratory
disease is it is it pretty is it pretty
obvious that if the pollute if the air
quality is worse it will impact our
lungs more our capability to breathe
what's what's your understanding of this
it isn't surprising because we know that
the diseases that are affected by air
pollution are the same diseases
that make kovat worse for people these
are underlying conditions like
respiratory illness like cardiovascular
issues and so it's not surprising but
this is alarming to see this much of an
effect as we're seeing from the Harvard
study what about we're looking
specifically these two studies are
looking at the US and also Italy what
about other countries with high
pollution rates I'm thinking
specifically places like India is there
I have what's the research saying there
so far is there been a chance to have a
look at that yet I haven't seen research
come out of India yet but I am very
concerned about how this will play out
in countries with high air pollution
rates and other risk factors I think
there is potential for air pollution to
be an exacerbating factor in many of
these places where do you think when it
comes down further down the line as a as
scientists as you study this more where
do you think we'll end up with with
these findings I look forward to seeing
it broke broken down by demographics
does it affect age or race differently
do we see it differently in different
places and I hope decision-makers use
this information both in the short term
to decide where resources should go to
fight this disease to limit its impacts
and in the long term to reduce air
pollution so people are at less risk of
dying from this new virus and is it too
early to say whether it's the whether
the virus whether it's carried on
polluted particles in the air or whether
it's the pollution that then damages our
internal internal organs and then that
adds to the code this disease having
such a devastating impact it's likely
there's a few mechanisms happening one
of them is that air pollution causes
inflammation we know that it causes
inflammation in the lungs potentially in
the cardiovascular system and when you
have inflammation that makes it harder
for you to fight disease like Ovid and
we're seeing kovat patients also
it is harder to fight it when your lungs
are experiencing inflammation have a
pre-existing condition or another
irritant and so it seems like it's a
deadly combination and we don't have
that much time but just briefly if you
would win it when it comes to gathering
collating this data what is it that you
as scientists need from the government's
I think we need data to be collected
quickly and systematically we need to
make sure that testing is done in a fair
and systematic way that helps us get at
good datasets to be able to study this
and the sooner that can happen the
better of course