Climate Change Threatens to Spread Viruses Through an Unprepared World
Urgent action is needed to include environmentalism in Covid recovery plans, a Lancet study says
A commuter wears a protective mask in Beijing, China.
Photographer: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Climate change is creating ideal conditions for infectious-disease transmission and the world’s health-care systems aren’t ready for the shock it will cause, according to a new study.
After nations largely failed the stress test of Covid-19, a novel virus, decades of progress to control age-old illnesses such as malaria, dengue fever and cholera are under threat unless leaders commit to more ambitious climate plans, the Lancet said in a study Wednesday. The medical journal’s sixth annual report, named The Lancet Countdown, tracks 44 indicators of health impacts that are directly linked to climate change and highlights worsening social inequalities.