Gulf Stream gyres may have dictated the outcome of the Covid-19 disease in Western Europe

Abstract

When looking at the Covid-19 fatality data on an Atlantic European map, what sticks out is a pattern of often neighboring areas with contrasting mortality rates. In countries like Spain or France, these areas can be grouped into interior (high mortality rates) and coastal (low mortality rates). When we draw the Low Mortality Areas (LMA) as a continuous line throughout the Atlantic European coastline, there is a striking coincidence between the resulting LMA corridor and the coastal area of immediate influence of the Gulf Stream. This coincidence begs the speculation that the two arms of the Gulf Stream may have determined to some exent the outcome of the Covid-19 pandemic in Western Europe.