\n<\/p>\n
I<\/span>s spending too much time outside on chilly days to blame for coughs and runny noses? Not exactly. \u201cColds are more common in the winter, but it\u2019s almost certainly correlation, not causation,\u201d says John Tregoning, a\u00a0professor in vaccine immunology at\u00a0Imperial College London.<\/p>\n One marginal factor is that UV light can kill viruses. Sneezing outside in the summer, for example, may expose viral droplets to sunlight, which can deactivate the virus, while faster evaporation causes it to desiccate. But\u00a0the main driver is behavioural: in colder months, we spend more time indoors with poorer ventilation and in\u00a0closer contact with others.<\/p>\n Data from the Covid-19 pandemic shows how much human contact matters: many other viruses largely disappeared because\u00a0people weren\u2019t interacting<\/p>\n \u201cDifferent cold and flu viruses peak at different times in the winter,\u201d says Tregoning, the author of Live Forever? A Curious Scientist\u2019s Guide to Wellness, Ageing and Death. \u201cRhinovirus spikes when kids return to school and spread germs around in small classrooms. RSV \u2013 another cold virus which is serious in elderly people and babies \u2013 peaks around new year.\u201d<\/p>\n Data from the Covid-19 pandemic shows how much human contact matters: many other viruses largely disappeared during lockdown because\u00a0people weren\u2019t interacting. One strain of flu even became extinct due\u00a0to lack of spread.<\/p>\n That said, extreme cold can affect your susceptibility to viruses. \u201cIf you\u00a0were cold all the time, losing calories and exhausted, you\u2019d be more\u00a0prone to infection,\u201d Tregoning says. Studies also show that rhinoviruses grow a little better at cooler temperatures, and the body\u2019s ability to\u00a0defend against viruses is slightly reduced in colder air.<\/p>\n The most effective protection? Vaccination against winter viruses such as flu and RSV. \u201cVaccines don\u2019t just prevent infection \u2013 they also have wider benefits, like reducing the risk of heart attacks,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Is spending too much time outside on chilly days to blame for coughs and runny noses? Not exactly. \u201cColds are more common in the winter, but it\u2019s almost certainly correlation, not causation,\u201d says John Tregoning, a\u00a0professor in vaccine immunology at\u00a0Imperial College London. One marginal factor is that UV light can kill viruses. Sneezing outside in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[2348,21697,9645,337,891,1933],"class_list":{"0":"post-40331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-catch","9":"tag-chilly","10":"tag-cold","11":"tag-life","12":"tag-style","13":"tag-true"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}