The beginning of spring is just around the corner. And with that comes questions about whether you may be sneezing and wheezing due to COVID-19 or allergies. But a new study has a surprising conclusion: the allergy season may actually Increase your risk of contracting COVID-19.
The study, conducted in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, uses data on pollen concentrations in the air, humidity, temperatures, COVID-19 infection rates and exclusion scenarios from 130 sites in 31 countries in five continents. After analyzing the data, the researchers discovered that higher pollen levels were linked to an additional 10 to 30 percent increase in the infection rate of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The scientists also found that the COVID-19 infection rate increased on average after higher pollen concentrations were in the air. The increase in cases usually occurred four days after the pollen increase.
The team decided to do the study after publishing research in which it was found that pollen affects the body’s immune response to other airway viruses, such as rhinovirus and RSV, both of which cause colds. at the Technical University of Munich, says Yahoo Life. The researchers then ‘saw the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate increase throughout the Northern Hemisphere, during a period in March with very hot and dry weather and with a lot of pollen throughout Europe and North America’, take a closer look, she says.
“It made sense, since COVID is a respiratory virus, to look at pollen interactions,” said co-author of dr. Lewis Ziska, associate professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, told Yahoo Life.
The big question, however, is why there might be a link.
While the study did not determine this, the researchers have theories. One is that allergy seasons naturally make more people sneeze and cough. “If you sneeze and cough, you spread more body fluids,” says co-author, dr. Leonard Bielory, an allergy specialist at Rutgers University – New Brunswick, to Yahoo Life. “If someone is infected with COVID-19 and sneezes and coughs, it can also cause others around them to become infected.”
Pollen also releases substances that reduce the ability of nasal cells to repel viruses, Gilles says. The result, she said, is that “viruses can more easily recur in the nose.” And when viruses recur, it can make you sick. There are even other environmental factors that can increase the risk of infection, such as moisture, which can “act in synergy with pollen” to increase your risk of getting sick, Gilles says.
One thing that experts emphasize, however, is that the pollen itself does not carry SARS-CoV-2 and infects humans. “Pollen is not cause infections, “says Gilles. Infection is transmitted through contact with infected persons. “
Inflammation can also play a role, says dr. Purvi Parikh, an allergist and immunologist from Allergy & Asthma Network, to Yahoo Life. “Airways that are already inflamed have a harder time clearing up and fighting infections,” she says, adding that people who also struggle with asthma find it very difficult.
Despite the theories, it is also possible that it is ‘accidental’, says dr. Richard Watkins, a doctor of infectious diseases in Akron, Ohio, and a professor of internal medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University, at Yahoo Life. Watkins points out that the findings are unusual, especially as ‘indoors increases the risk of COVID-19’. Being outdoors, which people tend to do more of when the weather is nice and the amount of pollen is high, reduces the risk.
Bielory acknowledges that more research is needed. “It’s a marker and a phenomenon,” he says. “It needs to be studied further.” Gilles says, however, that it is a good idea to mask outdoors during high pollen days, whether you are with others or not. “It reduces your risk of becoming infected – and keeps the pollen out of the airways,” she says.
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