Virology: Current Research

Mater Dei Hospital, Medical, School of Malta, University of Malta, Malta, UK

Publications

• Research Article   
  The Emergence of Ten SARS-CoV-2 Variants and Airborne PM_2.5
  Author(s): Yves Muscat Baron* and Liberato Camilleri
  
  Background: The atmospheric pollutant PM2.5 has been implicated in the pathogenesis of COVID-19. Some of the variants of SARS-CoV-2 possess the attributes of increased transmissibility and immune escape and appear to have been naturally selected to promulgate the pandemic. Variants of SARS-CoV-2 resulted due to a number of persistent SARS-CoV-2 mutations found in widely disparate and distant regions. This paper examines a possible association between airborne pollutant PM2.5 and the emergence of ten SARS-CoV-2 variants. Methods: The daily mean levels of PM2.5 of a number of cities, where SARS-CoV-2 variants were detected, were obtained from the World Air Quality Index (WAQI). The mean daily PM2.5 levels were evaluated just before the occurrence of the first cluster of PM2.5 peaks’ at.. Read More»
  

  Abstract HTML PDF