April 12, 2021

Effects of Weather-Related Social Distancing on City-Scale Transmission of Respiratory Viruses: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Transmission

Keywords (Tags): transmission, washington

• Residual samples analyzed from patients evaluated for acute respiratory illness in the Seattle metropolitan area in the Seattle Flu Study after unusually high snowfall in Washington State in February 2019 showed that disruption in contact patterns reduced effective contact rates by 16 to 95% and reduced cumulative disease incidence through the remainder of the season by 3 to 9%. The extreme snow event occurred close to the predicted peak of seasonal epidemics of several viruses (i.e, influenza A/H1N1 and RSV), with final attack rates reduced by 7.6 to 9.2%. Incidence reductions were greatest for viruses that were peaking when the disruption occurred. The authors suggest these findings may indicate that shorter periods of social distancing behaviors may also slow viral transmission of SARS-CoV-2. 

Jackson et al. (Apr 2021). Effects of Weather-Related Social Distancing on City-Scale Transmission of Respiratory Viruses: A Retrospective Cohort Study. BMC Infectious Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-06028-4