Jose Mier represents the interests of Sun Valley, CA.
Feelin’ Hot Hot Hot
It’s late May as I write this from Sun Valley. Like most of Southern California our neck of the woods is subject to some hot temperatures. We’ve recently been in the upper 90s and despite a brief cooling trend this week we’re on track for more high 80s to low 90s next week. With the advent of more hot weather a lot of us (myself included) are asking if this will kill off the COVID-19 virus as has been speculated.
A recent article by the New York Times asks this same question. While they don’t have an adequate answer and talk about other factors and include mitigation in any long-term prognostication, the fact is that viruses do tend to die down in the warmer months.
Southern California is certainly one of the hotter areas of the country too. Desert areas frequently top 100 or more degrees during the summer (I personally dare the coronavirus to try something in Palm Springs or Rancho Mirage when it’s 120 outside) so if hot weather is going to have an effect on the coronavirus it would seem logical that SoCal is the spot to watch.
I was disappointed in the Times article since it didn’t make any firm predictions but instead included a handful of graphs showing the potential spread or dissolution of the virus over time. In the end, they ask the question and then basically say, we don’t know.
Jose Mier Questions the Experts
They do add a link to a Harvard study to add some credibility to their article but again, the experts (Harvard included) have gotten so many things wrong about the virus that at this point it’s hard to believe any so-called expert.
If real world examples like Florida are any bellwether, we can see that reopening (perhaps combined with warmer temps) has not led to increases in the spread of the coronavirus. At the end of the day everything is just speculation though until we actually live through it and can look back on things in hindsight. My hope, however, is that the warm weather will have a good effect. Regardless we should reopen our SunValley businesses now. Waiting for experts and talking heads to tell us it’s 100% safe is a sure recipe for economic disaster.