Lands Abutting Seas, Oceans, 85% of World’s Coronavirus Deaths

The Worldometer Coronavirus registered six million deaths on March 03, 2022. 85% of the deaths occurred in lands directly abutting the World Seas and Oceans. The WHO, CDC and other World Public Health Organizations suggest that humidity can aid in the fight against COVID-19 [1]. The boundary of this comment is that it is directed at indoor air quality with perspective that 40-60% humidity is positive against COVID-19. The fact that almost all the World COVID-19 deaths are in lands directly abutting the Major World Seas and Oceans, with their inherent natural humidity, does not seem to be addressed in technical literature. There seems to be a conflict. This paper provides a breakdown of the World’s deadliest coronavirus regions at the six million death milestone, compares it to the earlier evaluation by the author captured in a WordPress website [2-10], and provides an in depth breakdown of the pandemic deaths and death rates in the lands abutting the Major World Seas and Oceans. Maps are provided showing the surrounding Countries or States of Countries with death and death rate tables for each of the World’s Major bodies of water. These are startling in similarity.

This paper is a follow-up to the evaluation conducted from April 2020 through December 2021 on the “World’s Coronavirus Death Regions and Why”. The full evaluation, which consisted of nine power point presentations is stored on a WordPress.com website created November 2021.1 Parts 9 & 10 [9,10] of that evaluation, completed at the five million COVID-19 death milestone, focused on the fact that the vast majority of the world’s coronavirus deaths had occurred in the Countries and States of Countries directly abutting the World’s Seas and Oceans. In December 2021 an additional Part 11 [11] was created connecting (a) the learnings from a half dozen published technical papers authored in Europe and Asia and (b) hypothesizing that the primary mode of transmission of coronavirus was from people as aerosols to absorption on fine pollutant particulates, over substantial distances, to people. At these micron to sub-micron sizes, the pollutant carrying coronavirus aerosols not only enter and affect people’s lungs, but pass through the lungs to people’s stomachs and bloodstreams.

On March 03, 2022 the Worldometer Coronavirus reported that the World reached six million reported coronavirus deaths. This paper confirms that 85% of the World’s coronavirus deaths have occurred in lands abutting the Seas and Oceans and reemphasizes the previously determined likely factors characteristic of these areas which magnify the intensity of coronavirus transmission and deaths.

Craven’s initial evaluation [2-10] identified that the world had five significant coronavirus death regions, which accounted for 89% of the world’s coronavirus deaths. They included the four regions of European Diaspora (Eastern and Western Europe and North and South America) plus the region of the Middle East/Southwest Asia (ME/SW Asia). The data at the six million death milestone, reached on March 03, 2022, is provided in table 1. This table accounts for 99.8% of the World’s deaths dividing them into eight Regions. Eastern Europe became the Region with highest death rate, with South America a close second. Death rates in Africa and the Far East remained at 5% of Eastern Europe and South America.

The earlier evaluation proposed the hypothesis that a “Pathway to Creation of Deadly Coronavirus Regions” existed. This Pathway is shown on figure 1.

Figure 1: Pathway to creation of deadly coronavirus regions.

The critical factors affecting coronavirus deaths identified in the initial evaluation were (a) massive emissions of pollution from a variety of well-known sources (refineries, coal-powered generation, diesel transportation land and sea, pesticides spraying, consumption, runoff) in (b) congested regions of population under (c) meteorogical weather conditions of temperature inversions. The hypothesized conclusion from this data-based observation in May 2020 was that the primary mode of coronavirus transmission had to be via virus aerosols attaching to the surfaces of fine pollutants. Investigation over the past months then determined that Global Air Quality Indices are based on PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ pollution particulates measured on a mass basis, not particle number or surface area. It took an additional year to grasp the importance of this distinction and its impact to the transmission of coronavirus aerosols over long distances. Studies in 2021 [11-19] provided critical input on (a) the reality that in the World’s major cities there is a ratio of 0.7 unmeasured sub-micron pollutant particulates to 1.0 measured PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ pollution particulates, and (b) that these sub-micron pollution particulates are capable of travelling substantial distances from their sources allowing for extensive personnel contact. At these fine sizes the pollutant/virus aerosols are capable of not only entering the lungs but also of entering further into the stomachs and bloodstreams, which is important as this affects the body’s natural immunities. Under temperature inversion conditions, with low wind speeds and minimal vertical air mixing, these pollutant/virus aerosols are capable of traveling up to hundreds of miles, well within the half-life of coronavirus aerosols on pollutant particulate surfaces typically in days [3,11-19].

Table 2 summarizes total coronavirus deaths, death rates, and accumulated percent of World deaths for the forty-two deadliest coronavirus countries, which accounted for 90% of the World’s pandemic deaths on March 03, 2022. The deaths in these countries descended from near one million in the USA to near 20,000 in Myanmar. Ninety countries of the 224 tracked by Worldometer Coronavirus had over 4,000 deaths, and accounted for 98% of the World’s total. Twenty-one countries accounted for 80% of the total. Six countries accounted for 50% of the World’s pandemic deaths – USA, Brazil, India, Russia, Mexico, and Peru. The pandemic is world-wide, but the bulk of coronavirus deaths are concentrated into narrow regions of the World.

The initial evaluation [9,10] determined that 85% of all the world’s coronavirus deaths, when the World reached 5 million deaths on October 29, 2021, occurred in countries directly abutting the world’s Seas and Oceans. The previous evaluations by Craven [8-10] were updated in this paper to determine if significant findings had changed since passing the 5 million death milestone. This paper reconfirms this same phenomenon at the six million death milestone.

Table 3 summarizes the World’s coronavirus deaths on lands directly abutting the World’s Major Seas. Total deaths accounted for are 3,339,801, 55.7% of the World’s total pandemic deaths. The lands surrounding the Black Sea plus Mediterranean Sea alone account for 20.6% of the World’s total.

Table 4 summarizes the World’s coronavirus deaths on lands directly abutting the Major World Seas shown in table 3 plus the lands of the US Pacific and Atlantic Ocean Coasts, South America’s Pacific and Atlantic Ocean Coasts, and South Africa’s Atlantic and Indian Ocean Coasts. All of these are brackish waters. Table 4 further includes the coronavirus deaths in the US States and one Canadian Province abutting the US Great Lakes. Total deaths accounted for on these lands abutting the World’s Major water bodies are 5,100,800, 85% of the World’s total pandemic deaths.

Figures 2-15 provide maps with death and death rate summary table for each region of lands abutting the Major Seas and Oceans.

Figure 2: Black sea region – 640,770 COVID-19 pandemic deaths - March 03, 2022.

Figure 3: Mediterranean sea region – 591,828 COVID-19 pandemic deaths - March 03, 2022.

Figure 4: South China sea region – 318,959 COVID-19 pandemic deaths - March 03, 2022.

Figure 5: Gulf of Mexico region - 557,430 COVID-19 pandemic deaths - March 03, 2022.

Figure 6: Arabian sea region - 479,988 COVID-19 pandemic deaths March 03, 2022.

Figure 7: Baltic sea region – 273,673 COVID-19 pandemic deaths March 03, 2022.

Figure 8: North sea region - 224,962 COVID-19 pandemic deaths March 03, 2022.

Figure 9: Caribbean sea region – 214,208 COVID-19 pandemic deaths March 03, 2022.

Figure 10: Japan & East China seas region – 37,975 Deaths March 03, 2022.

Figure 11: Great lakes region USA/Ontario – 287,935 COVID-19 pandemic deaths March 03, 2022.

Figure 12: US Pacific Coast – 104,626 COVID-19 pandemic deaths March 03, 2022.

Figure 13: US Atlantic coast – 152,057 COVID-19 pandemic deaths March 03, 2022.
(New York, Pennsylvania included with Great Lakes; Georgia, Florida included with Gulf of Mexico).

Figure 14: South African Coast - 103,509 COVID-19 pandemic deaths March 03, 2022.

Figure 15: South African Coast - 103,509 COVID-19 pandemic deaths March 03, 2022.

Words inadequately express these facts. Visualization by looking at all the maps is essential to grasp the significance.

The factors associated with this phenonenom of 85% of World’s deaths directly in lands abutting the World’s Major Seas and Oceans are explained in World’s Coronavirus Death Region Why, Part 8 and Part 9 [9,10].

The lands with these deaths abutting the Major World Seas and Oceans appear to be impacted hundreds of miles inland from the water source. This finding is important as it indicates that the range of coronavirus transmission from the Seas can easily be hundreds of miles and is consistent with the above comments about transmission of virus aerosols carried by sub-micron pollution particulates over long distances.

On February 11 and 12, 2022 a review of the countries with the highest death rates, as reported on the Worldometer Coronavirus, was made as the World, during early February, was again experiencing 12,000 coronavirus deaths per day. This led to the determination that East-Central Europe was the World’s Deadliest Coronavirus Region [20]. This paper [20] included an Appendix summarizing the work by Cunningham [21] emphasizing the extent of horrendous pollution in East-Central Europe created during the period this area was part of the USSR. Consistent to the conclusion by Craven (2021) that “pollution is complicit to all coronavirus deaths”, the determination that East-Central Europe was the World’s Deadliest Coronavirus Region expanded that conclusion to the more profound “extreme pollution results in extremely high death rates”.

This paper has re-confirmed, at the six million coronavirus pandemic death milestone, the fact that 85% of the World’s deaths are on the lands directly abutting the World’s Major Seas and Oceans. Comparison of the results of this analysis to Craven’s earlier evaluation (Craven, 2021) demonstrates the validity of that evaluation. Pollution is complicit to all coronavirus deaths. Extreme pollution leads to extreme virus death rates. A search for technical literature addressing the fact of most COVID-19 deaths occurring in lands directly abutting the World Major Seas and Oceans provided nothing. These bodies of water have naturally high humidity, are predominantly brackish, are home to intense oil and gas drilling and refining and coal-fired power generation, are the pathway of commercial shipping and luxury ocean liners fired with dirty diesel fuel, tend to be acidic from industrial CO₂ emissions, and annually experience temperature inversions which concentrate the pollutants. In most cases runoff from excessive pesticide use contaminants these bodies of water. Even cosmetics and suntan lotions from bathers has been found to generate ultrafine pollutants. All of these pollution sources provide airborne particulate surfaces, which are potential carriers for coronavirus aerosols with known half-lives of days over great distances.

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