It is my understanding that being cold doesn’t make us sicker (aside from pneumonia) so why is there actually a season where illnesses like the common cold and flu spread faster? Shouldn’t people get sick at the same rate all year?
In: Biology
It’s mostly because of the indoor environment.
When it’s cold out, people tend to stay inside and closer together. So, as density in public spaces increases so do opportunities to spread infections.
Also, air tends to circulate inside a closed system more (centralized heating) so there’s more opportunity to spread infections as people breathe in recirculated air.
And lastly, as I recall, cold weather tends to suppress people’s immune response somewhat so pathogens have more time to develop and thus spread. I’m a bit vague on that, though.
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