Large livestock farms can also serve as a source for spillover of infections from animals to people. Loss of habitat forces animals to migrate and potentially contact other animals or people and share germs. Deforestation, which occurs mostly for agricultural purposes, is the largest cause of habitat loss worldwide. Many of the root causes of climate change also increase the risk of pandemics. That means animals are coming into contact with other animals they normally wouldn’t, and that creates an opportunity for pathogens to get into new hosts. We don’t have direct evidence that climate change is influencing the spread of COVID-19, but we do know that climate change alters how we relate to other species on Earth and that matters to our health and our risk for infections.Īs the planet heats up, animals big and small, on land and in the sea, are headed to the poles to get out of the heat. Is climate change too expensive to fix?ĭoes climate change affect the transmission of coronavirus?.The scale of actions to combat them are starkly different.

COVID-19 is killing people now and climate change is killing people now.Climate change and global health policy are largely treated as separate issues by the public and media.Why is it so important for health officials to talk about climate change now?.Can you identify the communities most at-risk, and how and why both COVID-19 and climate change harms them?.What actions can we take to prevent future outbreaks?.Why are emerging infectious diseases on the rise?.How likely are we to see infectious disease spread as a result of climate change?.Will warmer weather slow the spread of coronavirus?.Does air pollution increase the risk of getting coronavirus? Does it make symptoms worse?.Does climate change affect the transmission of coronavirus?.If you would like to talk to someone at our center about coronavirus, please email us at t he latest updates, guidance, useful information, and resources about COVID-19 from the Harvard Chan Community, click here. This page will continue to be updated as new information arises. Aaron Bernstein, Director of Harvard Chan C-CHANGEīelow are some of the most common questions we have been receiving in relation to the environment and coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). Coronavirus and air pollution | Coronavirus and heatwaves Coronavirus, Climate Change, and the EnvironmentĪ Conversation on COVID-19 with Dr.

Sea sickness we need to go deeper