As the coronavirus has ripped through the planet and ground the global economy to a halt within a matter of weeks, there hasn’t been much reason for optimism. While much of the news these days is discouraging, there are several reasons for hope.

Summer is coming. From the get-go, there had been informed speculation that the coronavirus would weaken in warmer weather based on our experience with the flu, but there was not much actual evidence to support it. We now have at least some research supporting it. One study out of China looked at data from different cities, controlling for population density, and found that “high temperature and high humidity reduce the transmission of COVID-19.”