World Heart Federation Air Pollution Expert Group, School of Population and Public Health, The University of British Columbia, Canada.
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, USA.
Eur Heart J. 2021 Apr 14;42(15):1460-1463. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehaa1025.
Although the attention of the world and the global health community specifically is deservedly focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, other determinants of health continue to have large impacts and may also interact with COVID-19. Air pollution is one crucial example. Established evidence from other respiratory viruses and emerging evidence for COVID-19 specifically indicates that air pollution alters respiratory defense mechanisms leading to worsened infection severity. Air pollution also contributes to co-morbidities that are known to worsen outcomes amongst those infected with COVID-19, and air pollution may also enhance infection transmission due to its impact on more frequent coughing. Yet despite the massive disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are reasons for optimism: broad societal lockdowns have shown us a glimpse of what a future with strong air pollution measures could yield. Thus, the urgency to combat air pollution is not diminished, but instead heightened in the context of the pandemic.
尽管全世界和全球卫生界的注意力理应集中在 COVID-19 大流行上，但其他健康决定因素仍在产生重大影响，而且可能还与 COVID-19 相互作用。空气污染就是一个关键的例子。其他呼吸道病毒的既定证据以及 COVID-19 的新出现证据都表明，空气污染改变了呼吸道防御机制，导致感染严重程度恶化。空气污染还导致了已知会恶化 COVID-19 感染者预后的合并症，而且由于其对更频繁咳嗽的影响，空气污染也可能增强感染的传播。然而，尽管 COVID-19 大流行造成了巨大的破坏，但仍有理由感到乐观：广泛的社会封锁让我们瞥见了未来采取强有力的空气污染措施可能带来的成果。因此，在大流行背景下，对抗空气污染的紧迫性并没有减弱，反而更加紧迫。
