New information and data for COVID-19 have been popping up daily as more information, and cases for the virus continue to rise.
One of the many sources of information has come from the University of Wyoming’s very own Pejman Tahmasebi, an assistant professor in UW’s Department of Petroleum Engineering, who was the first-named author in the study `“How Do Environmental, Economic and Health Factors Influence Regional Vulnerability to COVID-19.”
“We were looking to look at the problem of COVID-19 from a different angle. In fact, from a perspective that has not considered in the current studies yet and that considering a long list of other possible factors that might affect the spread and mortality rate of COVID-19,” said Tahmasebi.
The different angle this study looked into was finding the other parameters that could cause vulnerability in the total number of deaths from COVID-19, including diabetes and age. Tahmasebi said the prevention of the coronavirus is not all about social distancing and staying home because of these other vulnerabilities. The researchers involved decided to create these parameters around the environment, health, and economics that could be related to COVID-19.
“We, [myself] as an engineer, always work on some practical problems related to the industry. However, the COVID-19 crisis is something different and requires researchers from various fields to come together and contribute to helping the society with more information and help people,” Tahmasebi said.
Tahmasebi and the other three researchers – from Manchester University, Imperial College of London, and the University of Southern California – collected an immense amount of data from the virus and used that data for analysis to extract their trends and meanings.
The data was taken from 14 different countries, and that was based on the death toll from April 5. Tahmasebi said he was satisfied with the results, as they agreed with publishes from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and other news agencies.
“It is hard to pick the best thing in dealing with COVID-19 and ask people to follow,” said Tahmasebi. “But, based on the pieces of evidence, an effective way of halting the virus is minimizing the interactions and staying at home if possible. We are still far from the ideal situation as before because, as I mentioned [before], it is not all about staying at home, but this is the best we can do now.”
While he said it is not all about staying home, Tahmasebi did mention that people within those parameters at risk should take social distancing more seriously. An example that Tahmasebi explained in those being at risk were of people who lived in highly polluted areas.
“For example, the reason for selecting CO2 emission is that particles in the air can carry the virus and expedite the spread. In some cases, those particles can help the durability of the virus even for a longer time, such as days. Thus, that is why places with higher pollution are at more risk, and people should stay at home. In other words, you [can] do your best by staying at home and cleaning your hands, but the virus can still be transmitted if you breathe unhealthy (in terms of the virus) air,” he said.
This study, posted in a preprint on medRxiv, is helping to aid society by giving more knowledge and information about COVID-19 to the public, and Tahmasebi encourages students to do the same.
“I believe students should always use their knowledge in helping society in any possible way. Sometimes this aid can be moving the wheels of industry, but in some unexpected cases like COVID-19, we can help in many other ways.”
