Are there medium to short-term multifaceted effects of the airborne pollutant PM2.5 determining the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants?

Yves Muscat Baron

doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2021.110718

Are there medium to short-term multifaceted effects of the airborne pollutant PM_2.5 determining the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants?

Med Hypotheses. 2021 Oct 20:158:110718. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2021.110718. Online ahead of print.

Author

Yves Muscat Baron¹

Affiliation

¹ Mater Dei Hospital, University of Malta Medical School, Malta. Electronic address: yves.muscat.baron@gov.mt.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been characterised by successiveoutbreaks effecting large swathes of the world's populations. These waves of infection have been mainly driven by a number of more transmissiblevariants which appear to evade the populations' immunity gained from previous outbreaks. There appears to be a link between COVID-19 and a ubiquitous airborne pollutant calledparticulate matter, PM2.5. Particulate matter through a number of mechanisms, including its anthropogenic effect, appears to be associated with the incidence and the mortality related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper poses a number of hypotheses on the short to medium-term mechanisms whereby PM2.5 may be party to the natural selection of SARS-CoV-2 virus, with the consequent emergence of variants.

Keywords: COVID-19; Mutations; PM(2.5); SARS-CoV-2; Variant emergence.