You've probably gotten a summer cold, perhaps even the flu, even though the weather is warm.

SARS-CoV-2, the 2019 form of coronavirus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, is in the same family as the common cold, so it is correct that heat will kill it, but just like colds and flu, weather is not a magic bullet.

Some do believe that with summer heat social distancing means less but that isn't reliable. False confidence can have adversely shaped risk perception and put people you know in the .03 with devastating risk factors in greater jeopardy.



A new paper says current messaging on social media and elsewhere about weather and COVID-19 "obscures key nuances." Just like with agriculture, chemicals, and natural gas, you shouldn't believe it just because you saw it on Twitter.

Heat or not, if you live near people, protection is better than relying on the weather. And it will spread more in the winter, so containment during warm weather is vital. No one believes yet that Russians will save the world based on Phase I clinical trials so masks and separation matter even when it's hot.

They also note that all pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions are currently believed to have a stronger impact on transmission over space and time than any environmental driver, so keep the Lysol, Clorox, and Purell handy even when it's warm.

COVID-19 interventions cannot currently be planned around seasonality.