A group of US scholars has concluded that smoke from forest fires can ease the spread of the coronavirus (advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/33/eabi8789). While all the data was about Americans, Russians are alarmed because this year they are suffering through the largest forest fires they have ever known
Because most of the Russian fires are in Siberia and the Far East, the prevailing winds are carrying most of the smoke eastward toward the Pacific and ultimately North America; but many cities east of the Urals are suffering from the blinding smoke. And residents are worries that the smoke could be increasing their chances of being infected with the coronavirus.
Today, Russian officials reported registering 21,000 new cases of infection and 797 new deaths from the coronavirus over the last 24 hours, as the pandemic ebbs and flows across the country with restrictions and relaxations generally following the same trend line
