Author: Joel Kaufman, University of Washington, Seattle

1. Air Pollution and Other
Environmental Exposures
COVID-19: The Year After [Webinar]
COVID-19, Global Environmental Change, and Opportunities For Progress
5 May 2020
Joel Kaufman
University of Washington, Seattle, USA
Departments of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, Medicine, and
Epidemiology

2. Observations From the Pandemic
• Observations We Can See Now
• Observations We Will Make Later
• Lessons We Can Learn
• Mistakes We Need to Avoid

3. Observations We Can See Now
•Reductions in Human and Industrial Activity
Result in Reductions in a Variety of
Anthropogenic Emissions
•Improved Air Quality
•Decreased Emissions of Greenhouse Gases

4. Images of Improved Air Quality

5. Evidence that reduced emissions are possible
• A window into a more sustainable future

6. Observations We Will Make Later
• Have modifiable environmental factors influenced SARS-CoV2
emergence?
• Did air pollution and other modifiable environmental exposures affect
susceptibility to acquisition of SARS-CoV2 infection?
• Did air pollutants and other modifiable environmental exposures
affect prognosis of COVID-19 illness?
• Did air quality improvements during pandemic result in any health
benefits?
• How did meteorological factors figure into SARS-CoV2 ecology and
what are the implications of climate change on future pandemic risk?

7. Lessons We Can Learn
• After solid scientific evidence is accumulated…
• How environmental changes can increase / reduce risk of occurrence of
future pandemics
• How control of environmental exposures, including but not limited to air
pollutants, can augment / mitigate impact of future pandemics
• Human / societal behavior changes are possible that result in notably
reduced emissions
• Improved air quality has been a rare element of brightness in a dark period
• There is potential to celebrate this improvement, especially in areas most
impacted by the worst air quality.

8. New York Times, April 6, 2020

9. Mistakes We Need to Avoid
• Societies Can’t Forget to Prioritize Investment in Environmental
Sustainability
• As we face economic challenges, environmental challenges will not be at top of
policy maker agendas
• Environmental improvements will be framed by some as too costly to implement let
alone sustain
• Evidence has shown that environmental policies that are technology-forcing can be
not only cost-effective but provide important opportunities for economic
development
• Understand historical perceived conflict: perception of a trade-off between
economic development/prosperity and environmental protections that
emphasize public health and quality of life
• This is a persistent narrative but not supported by evidence

10. Will we see setbacks in environmental
protections?
• Decreased commitment toward health-based environmental
protections?
• Relaxed processes to enable expedited economic activity?
• Reduced enforcement of health-based environmental goals?
• Enactment of pre-existing agendas “under cover of darkness”

11. Commitment to Evidence-based Environmental
Progress Will Face Unprecedented Challenges

12. Thank you for inviting me to participate