TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Slusky, David
AU  - Zeckhauser, Richard J.
        TI  - Sunlight and Protection Against Influenza
        PY  - 2020/Jul/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 13469
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp13469
        AB  - Recent medical literature suggests that vitamin D supplementation protects against acute respiratory tract infection. Humans exposed to sunlight produce vitamin D directly. This paper investigates how differences in sunlight, as measured over several years across states and during the same calendar week, affect influenza incidence. We find that sunlight strongly protects against getting influenza. This relationship is driven almost entirely by the severe H1N1 epidemic in fall 2009. A 10% increase in relative sunlight decreases the influenza index in September or October by 1.1 points on a 10-point scale. A second, complementary study employs a separate data set to study flu incidence in counties in New York State. The results are strongly in accord.
        KW  - Seasonal Influenza
KW  - sunlight
KW  - vitamin d
KW  - natural experiment
KW  - H1N1
        ER  -