COVID-19 Outbreak (Update: More than 2.9M cases and 132,313 deaths in US)

bclemms said
What we don't understand is why the virus tends to spread slower in winter of colder areas that have even less UV exposure. Places like Berlin and Moscow or MSP and Detroit in the USA. Our guess was people tend to go out less, have a lot less skin exposure with so many people in those location wearing gloves and layers of clothes. Which also makes us think that more transmission from surfaces happen than most people think. Plus those tend not to have the huge international hubs due to frequent poor weather days which may have reduced seeding. It could be the virus just doesn't do as well in freezing temps but we think that is unlikely. Ontario and toronto have been the most outlier of the cold weather places but they avoided early big outbreaks while temps were still cold. Toronto is going to be a city we think has a lot of problems moving forward.

Having grown up in an area like that (Great Falls MT) the cold makes a difference in a couple of ways. But first, the upper Midwest isn’t big on getting close to people anyway. The cultural personal space is greater to begin with, and the movement in those areas gets restricted in winter. Right now it’s called social distancing and shelter at home, when I was a kid it was called to damn cold and slick to go outside. Also, anything over a persons face helps and scarf use is much more common up there at this time of the year. Between scarfs, hoods and face masks, some form of facial protection is quite common. I know my mom hasn’t left the house in three weeks. It’s very common to buy a months worth of groceries and not leave all that much simply because it’s easier than running around. Once spring starts and people start moving we will see.