Yes, in my opinion absolutely : Yes. This is based on analyzing several HOT weather countries, which are in the highest spread danger category yet have very low numbers of confirmed infections. It makes complete scientific sense. We know that the Virus can not survive outside a living organism (body) indefinitely. We do not know how long the virus can survive outside the body because there are so many different factors like: On what material? What is the ambient temperature? What are the temperature changes between day and night? What is the exposure to UV(sunlight) of that material? What are the temperature retention characteristics of that material and so forth. Bottom line: the hotter the temperature and the more UV exposure the faster the virus will die.
The advantage of these countries with hot weather is three fold. First, obviously the virus will die sooner due to heat and UV exposure if the virus is spit out by droplets or through hand contact with objects. Second, the warmer temperatures in these countries pose less stress on the body and therefore the body has a better chance to fight a viral infection. Third, these countries have a very limited amount of air-conditioned homes. Therefore, the virus will live shorter inside as well.
I looked at the historic infection data of these countries over the last two month. I compared them to similar countries with colder climate like China, S. Korea and Japan. When looking at the confirmed cases and the continues influx of travelers form high -infection-rate-countries the infection rate in these hot weather countries should have followed the same transmission rates as the cold weather countries. But they did not. They actually stayed amazingly low. This begs the question if these low rates are due to lack of testing or underreporting. If this were the case then the unreported cases would have the same ratio of people needing intensive care ( about 20% of infected people) as everywhere else in the world. This would mean that the hospitals would be flooded with people needing intensive care. This is not the case. The truth most likely is somewhere in the middle between these confirmed cases and the expected cases.
Are there any other factors existing in these hot weather countries that would help to slow down the spread. The answer is definitely yes. There is a high rate of people wearing face-masks. There are temperature checks on public buildings and businesses. People are aware to stay away from pother people displaying symptoms. Facemarks are very effective in slowing the spread. This is contrary to the current propaganda by many people. The facts are simple. If most people wear a surgical mask than most people protect other people from themselves. Keep in mind that the virus can be spread by people without symptoms. These people wear a mask to protect themselves but actually unknowingly protect everyone else from them. Secondly, these masks do provide an additional layer of protection. They are not perfect but still protect the wearer more then without a mask. Therefor, the spread is slowed considerably. Temperature checks are the best way to find obviously sick people and keep them from entering crowded places. This does not mean that all people that have a high temperature have the coronavirus. Far from it. But it does slow the spread of the virus by keeping high risk people out of crowded places.
Bottom line. In my opinion the hot weather and the sun as well as wearing facemarks on mass slows down the virus considerably. This gives the world the potential breather during the upcoming hot summer month. HOWEVER, let us not waste this time and prepare for the winter as much as we can during the summer. If the Spanish flue is any indication of what is to come we need all the time in the world to be ready for a huge outbreak during the cold winter month at the end of 2020.
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