It was commonly thought early in the COVID-19 pandemic that cooler weather would drive people indoors and lead to higher hospitalization cases due to close proximity – similar to viruses such as influenza and RSV.
A study by researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health challenges that assumption and shows that the influence of weather-related changes in mobility patterns was limited. The study looked at the relationship between weather, hospital surveillance and mobility data in five Colorado counties.
“I think this research adds to Colorado’s story of the pandemic and builds the pool of evidence to draw from for looking at microclimates, infectious disease and transmission going forward,” said Elise Grover, MSPH, DrPH, senior research instructor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health. Grover authored the research along with CU Anschutz colleagues Debashis Ghosh MS, PhD, and Elizabeth Carlton PhD, MPH, and Andrea Buchwald from the University of Maryland.
In the following Q&A, Grover explains how the research was focused, what the data analysis showed and the unique challenges of microclimate research.