Do environmental pollutants carrier to COVID-19 pandemic? A cross-sectional analysis

Abstract

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a highly transmitted disease that spreads all over the globe in a short period. Environmental pollutants are considered one of the carriers to spread the COVID-19 pandemic through health damages. Carbon emissions, PM2.5 emissions, nitrous oxide emissions, GHG, and other GHG emissions are mainly judged separately in the earlier studies in different economic settings. The study hypothesizes that environmental pollutants adversely affect healthcare outcomes, likely to infected people by contagious diseases, including coronavirus cases. The subject matter is vital to analyze the preventive healthcare theory by using different environmental pollutants on the COVID-19 factors: total infected cases, total death cases, and case fatality ratio, in a large cross-section of 119 countries. The study employed the generalized least square (GLS) method for robust inferences. The results show that GHG and CO2 emissions are critical factors likely to increase total coronavirus cases and death rates. On the other hand, nitrous oxide, carbon, and transport emissions increase the case fatality ratio through healthcare damages. The study concludes that stringent environmental policies and improving healthcare infrastructure can control coronavirus cases across countries.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Carbon emissions; Cross-country study; GHG emissions; GLM approach; Nitrous oxide emissions.

Fig. 1

Scatter plot between CFR and PM2.5. Source: Author’s illustration

Fig. 2

Scatter plot between CFR and CO2 emissions. Source: Author’s illustration

Fig. 3

Scatter plot between CFR and total GHG emissions. Source: Author’s illustration

Fig. 4

Scatter plot between CFR and NO2. Source: Author’s illustration