Air Pollution Increases Influenza Hospitalizations

Gregor Singer; Joshua Graff Zivin; Matthew Neidell; Nicholas Sanders

Using a rich longitudinal dataset, we provide causal evidence that air pollution increases hospitalization rates for seasonal influenza. Our findings offer novel evidence important for policy making, highlighting the heightened importance of increasing vaccination rates in polluted urban centers (49). This is especially important in developing countries, which house the most polluted cities in the world and have very low baseline vaccination rates (50). They also imply pollution controls can provide an important hedge against antigenic drift or shift in the influenza virus that renders the vaccine significantly less effective in some years, helping reduce global medical spending, avoid lost productivity, and reduce loss of human life.