Public activities preceding the onset of acute respiratory infection syndromes in adults in England – implications for the use of social distancing to control pandemic respiratory infections.

Using public transport, shopping, dining out, going to a party or place of worship and spending time with someone who has a cold are all associated with significantly higher risks of contracting a respiratory illness such as COVID-19, according to new UCL research. 

The peer-reviewed Wellcome funded study, used data from the England and Wales Flu Watch cohort and is the first to investigate the impact of specific public activities on the risk of acquiring respiratory tract infection in a population-based cohort.The UCL research team found being around someone with a cold from outside your household doubled a person’s risk of contracting a respiratory illness and social activities, particularly travelling on crowded busses or underground trains and shopping also carried the highest risks (when social-distancing measures were not in place).You can find the full research article here: https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/5-54