Redundancy of Respiratory Humidification & Dysfunction of Defence Mechanisms at Upper Airways of Large Number of People Due to Cumulative Adverse Effects of Climate Change -The Root Cause of the COVID-19 Outbreak

Abstract

The COVID-19 has returned in the form of an outbreak of new variants. Viruses have evolved and accompanied mankind from times immemorial but seem to be increasingly threatening the survival of the human race especially in the last four decades. Various theories are available with respect to initial transmissions to humans yet none is endorsed in totality. At the same time climate change poses the greatest threat to human health and its effects are more pronounced in the last four decades than ever before. The purpose of this perspective is to establish scientifically a correlation between the outbreak of COVID-19 or its variants and climate change. This presentation is based on hitherto overlooked yet proven physics and engineering involved in the human respiratory humidification. Respiratory humidification is a uniquely evolved process of Natural Selection to withstand complex and dynamic environments. As COVID-19 is a respiratory viral disease, the gas exchange mechanism and human body’s normal temperature and alveolar air parameters are first explained to justify its uniqueness. A step by step review of physics and engineering involved in respiratory humidification is also done. It is then analyzed in context of Climate Change of a location and its impact on inspired air parameters. Based on Meteorological Data of Wuhan; the place of COVID-19 outbreak; it is established that the Climate Change resulted in redundancy of respiratory humidification and dysfunction of associated immune defence mechanisms of many inhabitants and facilitated viruses like SARS-CoV-2 an unchallenged access to the lungs. The outbreak of COVID-19 and subsequent pandemic was its outcome.