Will Warm Weather Make COVID-19 Toast? Don’t Bet on It, Experts Say | Voice of America

Spring is in the air across the Northern Hemisphere. As winter is winding down, some are expecting the COVID-19 pandemic to fade along with it.

Last month, President Donald Trump predicted that the pandemic would end in April, as warmer temperatures move in. Others have speculated that heat and humidity have kept case counts relatively low in the tropics. 

It’s possible.  

However, “It’s probably not something I’d put a lot of money on either way,” George Washington University arbovirologist Christopher Mores said.

In temperate countries, colds and flu rise and fall with the seasons. The COVID-19 virus is a respiratory disease much like the flu, and it’s closely related to coronaviruses that cause the common cold. 

Based on how those other coronaviruses behave, one group of scientists predicts that COVID-19 cases may decline as Northern Hemisphere spring arrives.

But that…