The research reviews the considerations related to studying the correlation between ambient air pollution and its effects on the symptoms of COVID-19. There were numerous studies that claimed that there are certain connections between death rates from COVID-19 and the issues related to the quality of air. As researchers claim, many people die from air pollution as it amplifies other illnesses (Villeneuve, 2020). Nevertheless, the studies that tried to link the COVID-19 mortality to the polluted air had many methodological flaws and were not peer-reviewed.
It is possible that daily increases in outdoor air pollution have a negative influence on COVID-19 prognoses. According to the review of the characteristics of the researches that have spread their findings, all of them had significant flaws that prevented them from offering insights into a causal relationship between the past or existing concentrations of pollutants in the air and death rates or other infections in the COVID-19 pandemic (Villeneuve, 2020). In the midst of a pandemic, there is little public advantage to completing these assessments. There is already a large amount of data indicating poor air quality is a health danger. The research does not find how these researches will help improve public health. It is stated in the article that the public is harmed by these researches, many of which were not peer-reviewed. Particularly, the reason for it lies in the press being on the lookout for exaggerated claims and presidential candidates in the United States being prone to run with byline headlines.
In conclusion, the researches that tried to link air pollution to the death rates from COVID-19 are not valid due to numerous flaws in the design. This is mostly related to these designs made in a rush to gain popularity for the researches. It was possible because of the media trying to exaggerate their articles and looking for a scientific basis to do so. This led to excessive worries in society and caused many problems in this regard. Future researches should consider these flaws in designing research and be more precise with their methodology.
Reference
Villeneuve, P. & Goldberg, M (2020). Methodological Considerations for Epidemiological Studies of Air Pollution and the SARS and COVID-19 Coronavirus Outbreaks. Environmental health perspectives. doi:128. 95001. 10.1289/EHP7411.