It's only August and the 2020 wildfire season has already burned more acres than the worst season on record (2017 with a whopping 1.2 million acres burned). As discussed in an article by Mic, climate change has exacerbated the regular wildfire "season" and the Coronavirus is making it exceptionally hard for firefighters to tend to the blaze. While the smoke will not carry COVID-19, the respiratory problems caused by the black carbon particles within smoke, PM 2.5, will make people more susceptible to respiratory illness like COVID-19. 

“Immediately from a respiratory point of view, there's all kinds of symptoms like eye irritation and cough,” Irva Hertz-Picciotto, the director of the UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences department, tells Mic. “Some people actually have difficulty breathing. People who have never had asthma will say they're wheezing.”

Wildfires pushing people out of their homes, into smoke laden air, and possibly sheltering with others, even temporarily, during the time of COVID does not bode well for people's respiratory health. In these situations, the best option is to wear an N95 mask which will filter out at least 95% of the PM2.5 particles, though as AQRC Director Tony Wexler likes to remind us  - if you can, you should just be a couch potato avoiding the outdoor smoke and possible contact with COVID-19. 

Climate change is causing the earth to warm, lengthening the fire season and creating by-products with detrimental effects to our health. 

“If it's hot and it's windy and everything is right for a terrible wildfire, if no one lights the fire, nothing happens,” says Wexler. “If a PG&E line doesn't go down, or someone doesn't have a campfire, or someone's not mowing their lawn and the blade nicks a rock, which then has a spark… If that tiny little event never happens, you got a pass.”

So far, we haven't had much of a pass and it's unlikely we will get any in the future. Read more about "Why this year's wildfire season is particularly catastrophic", the resulting effects on regular people and firefighters, and what can be done about it from Harry Cheadle of Mic.com. 

Why this year's wildfire season is particularly catastrophic