Initial Investigation of Environment Vs Policy Vs Socialinfluences on SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 Incidence, Propagation, and Mortality Rates

SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 propagated rapidly from a local outbreak to global scales with associated multi-trillion $ impact on the international economy and social, economic, and ecological systems. The Pandemic is currently ongoing and key questions have arisen as to what key factors determine its incidence, propagation, and mortality rates. Here, we try to distinguish between concurrent and collocated influences on COVID-19 due to environmental factors (e.g., T, humidity..) compared to policy actions (e.g., lock downs, slowdowns, open/closed businesses, transportation), and social practice (e.g., wearing masks, social distancing). Publicly available data and information from selected countries/regions around the world are used in this initial analysis. Preliminary results suggest that policy actions and social practice have a dominating influence on the propagation and containment (or not) of COVID-19, possibly enabled by or associated with concomitant environmental factors.