An infected person could infect another person with the coronavirus just about anywhere, especially in dense crowds. But the evidence suggests that the threat is greatly diminished if you are outdoors and not in a crowd.
This matters as states consider relaxing their restrictions. They should probably start reopening beaches, large parks, botanical gardens, and allowing safe and spaced outdoor activities such as golf and fishing (though not on a crowded pier), because these are good sources of recreation that appear to present a minimal risk of spread.
Sunlight kills the virus and boosts our immune systems. Outdoor places allow more easily for spacing. Most importantly, fresh, moving, wide open air is far less likely to get you sick.
Sure, a packed parade, protest, or music festival is still probably unsafe. But any place where people can spread out out-of-doors ought to be reopened as soon as possible.
So, as days get longer, sunnier, warmer, and more humid, we ought to embrace the outdoors and boost our immune systems with more sunshine. And our political leaders ought to let us.
Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, pointed to a study of coronavirus outbreaks in China that found almost every single outbreak occurred indoors.
New: Study of 318 outbreaks in China found transmission occurred out-of-doors in only one, involving just 2 cases. Most occurred in home or public transport. Raises key chance for states to move services outdoors (religious, gym classes, restaurants, etc). https://t.co/Isg5DGxRWa pic.twitter.com/Z5n1b52h8V
— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) April 23, 2020
The study looked at case reports from hundreds of cities and towns in China (excluding Hubei province, where the outbreak began). They found 318 outbreaks involving three or more cases. Most outbreaks involved gatherings at people’s homes, with public transportation the second-most common venue for an outbreak.
Here is the study’s conclusion:
Again, looking in more than 300 cities, at 318 outbreaks of three or more, not a single outbreak occurred outdoors.
There are caveats here: This is a single study. It comes out of China. It could have been that during lockdowns in China, people simply weren’t congregating outside for fear of being spotted by angry communist police drones. But the study certainly suggests that being outdoors allows for safety, even amid a pandemic.
“The science could not be clearer,” three scientists, including an epidemiologist, wrote in the Washington Post recently. “The benefits of getting outside vastly outweigh the risk of getting infected in a park.”
The benefits for physical, mental, and emotional health are massive, especially when indoor sources of diversion and exercise are shut down.
“Outdoors,” the authors wrote, “the virus quickly disperses in the air, so others should not be anxious if a runner goes by — even if they pass within six feet.”
And while the virus can persist on surfaces for hours, sunlight seems to kill it pretty rapidly. The Department of Homeland Security found that the half-life of the virus on surfaces (the time it takes the virus to lose half its potency) is hours indoors compared to minutes outdoors.
Zeynep Tufecki has been the best journalist to follow on the coronavirus. She hasn’t declared outdoor spaces safe, but she has pointed to how easily the virus spreads indoors, mostly through prolonged exposure to breathing the same air as sick people. That is, spread through surfaces is real, but being in the same room and inhaling the air someone else coughed into seems to be at the heart of this disease’s spread.
This isn’t unique to the coronavirus. Why is there a winter flu season? One major reason is that we spend more time indoors in the winter — and less time outdoors in the sun. Check out this article published at Harvard:
2) Days are shorter during the winter, and lack of sunlight leads to low levels of vitamin D and melatonin, both of which require sunlight for their generation. This compromises our immune systems, which in turn decreases ability to fight the virus.
The “What’s To Stop … ?” scolds will now chime in: “If you open the walking trails, what’s to stop everyone from bumping into one another? If you allow fishing, what’s to stop 10,000 from showing up at your local stream and fishing?”
Well, sensible rules can stop that nonsense. My local botanical garden has closed off every other parking spot. That’s fewer people at peak time and nobody bumping into another person in the parking lot. Make people wear masks.
Also, the more outdoor places you open up, the less crowded each open outdoor space will be.
Again, we need rules, masks, and spacing. Spacing will not happen on jungle gyms, unfortunately, and so, playgrounds will have to stay closed. Basketball is awesome, but breathing heavily on a guy you’re defending is unhealthy.
But walking, fishing, braiding twigs of willows, painting a forest, and watching birds are all good for us. Our governments should let us do them.
