A green reboot for cities: Strategies for post-COVID growth

In the case of pandemics, billions of dollars in prevention are worth trillions of dollars for the cure. But how do we translate that simple insight into effective action that saves lives? 

Countries, influential stakeholders and institutions have largely failed to take preventative action, despite clear evidence of need following the SARS and avian influenza outbreaks. The consequences are clear, and the world is now paying the price for failing to take advantage of past opportunities to make prevention a priority.

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Incidence of COVID-19 and Connections with Air Pollution Exposure : Evidence from the Netherlands

The fast spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has resulted in the young woman with face mask using smartphone-GND-iStockemergence of several hot-spots around the world. Several of these are located in areas associated with high levels of air pollution. This study investigates the relationship between exposure to particulate matter and COVID-19 incidence in 355 municipalities in the Netherlands. The results show that atmospheric particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5 is a highly significant predictor of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and related hospital admissions. The estimates suggest that expected COVID-19 cases increase by nearly 100 percent when pollution concentrations increase by 20 percent.

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