Cold weather makes you sick.

Question

Germs survive and spread more easily in dry winter air. Cold temperatures weakens your immune system which causes you to get sick. Something that also has a big impact is that people want to stay indoors which Impacts germs.

Answer 1

I think that saying cold weather itself makes you sick is a bit misleading. However it is true that cold weather creates ideal conditions to become sick. For example Dr. Virginia Banks of Northeast Ohio Infectious Disease Associates in Youngstown says "It's multifactorial. Just given cold weather alone doesn't make you sick." The article goes on to explain some of these factors. For example, cold weather keeps people indoors and viruses spread more easily in close quarters. Along with that your average cold strives in temperatures between 91 and 95, and colder temperatures causes your nasal passages to be in that window. Shannon Fecher, ARNP from UnityPoint Health seconds this saying "Viruses tend to occur more in colder seasons, as we spend a lot of time indoors, which allows the virus to spread more readily. Instead of the cold causing illness." 

https://www.heart.org/en/news/2021/12/17/can-the-cold-really-make-you-sick 

https://www.unitypoint.org/news-and-articles/do-you-really-get-sick-from-being-cold#:~:text=%E2%80%9CCan%20you%20get%20sick%20from,and%2For%20the%20flu.%E2%80%9D 

Comments

I think this is a great fact check that even further elaborates on the original claim made stating "Cold weather makes you sick." You did a good job stating your opinion at the very beginning of your fact check and spent the rest of the passage backing it up. It was helpful when you went beyond the source provided in the original fact check, and then brought in two separate sources of your own. This shows the extra research you did in working to back up your claim. As a reader it is also helpful to hear the facts from multiple different and reliable sources. You also explained the quotes you pulled from each source in a clear and concise way.

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I really like your analysis, especially the first two sentences stating your argument because it is very clear and efficient. I appreciate you addressing the fact that you believe the claim is misleading because that is important to consider when looking at a source. You did a good job providing examples to back up your factcheck which I found really helpful and effective.

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I really appreciate your use of not only one source but two in order to effetely prove your point.

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This is a good answer to this claim as you listed a source and quotes.  The claim, "Cold weather makes you sick" is misleading as viruses spread easier indoors as more people are during colder months. Cold weather itself doesn't directly cause sickness is the answer to the claim. This is a helpful response and explains why the claim is incorrect.

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This was a great explanation and you did a good job expanding the original claim. You used two credible sources and you explained them too. You explained why the original claim was wrong and gave answers to what the claim did wrong. There was proof of the new claim and explanations of it. The proof was science based fact that made the whole passage stronger.

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This is an excellent fact check, starting with your opinion set a clear tone, and the rest of your writing effectively supports it. Hearing multiple, reliable perspectives strengthens the argument, and your explanations of each quote are clear and concise, making it easy for readers to follow the evidence.

Answer 2

You made some great points about how dry winter air and cold temperatures can affect the spread of germs and our immune systems. Research proves that viruses such as the flu thrive during winter months. As you mentioned, people tend to stay indoors during winter, increasing the likelihood of spreading germs. You did a great job of proving and backing up your claim that people get more sick during the wintertime.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/winter-illness-guide#:~:text=Colds%2C%20flus%20and%20other%20respiratory,from%20one%20person%20to%20another.

Answer 3

I think the title of this article as well as the title of this post is misleading. After reading through the article, it explains that the cold weather doesn't directly cause people to get sick, but does cause your body to contract sicknesses. Cold air can weaken the immune response in nasal passages, while indoor heating can dry out airways, making the body more susceptible to infection. 

Here is a quote from an article I found: "It's multifactorial. Just given cold weather alone doesn't make you sick," said Dr. Virginia Banks of Northeast Ohio Infectious Disease Associates in Youngstown. "There are just a lot of variables." This quote from Dr. Banks further proves that Winter doesn't directly cause viruses to build in the body.

https://www.heart.org/en/news/2021/12/17/can-the-cold-really-make-you-sick 

Comments

I think this is a great fact-check answer. The main post is misleading in stating that the cold weather is a direct cause of getting sick.

Answer 4

While your explanation is good and the source you use is reliable, the claim could potentially be misleading to some people reading it. While the cold can technically make you sick, in end it's really the viruses in the air that make you sick. According to Heart.org, "For one, viruses may survive and reproduce more easily in the cold, dry air of winter." In addition, Heart.org also states "And although laboratory research suggests cold temperatures can make immune cells less effective, Banks said in the end, viruses – not the cold weather – are what make you sick."

So, while I do agree with your explanation, I think being more concise/specific in your claim talking about the viruses that cause sickness instead of the cold could help clarify any possible misunderstanding.

https://www.heart.org/en/news/2021/12/17/can-the-cold-really-make-you-sick

Comments

I really like this fact check. You said what you liked from the claim and then added on some constructive criticism on how to improve it. You also gave a new source of your own and quoted evidence from it to back up your fact check. Overall a really nice job.

Answer 5

This claim is false. Sure, bacteria and viruses spread more easily in cold weather, but it is not the cold weather itself that makes a person sick. It can make someone more prone to catching sickness but not actually give sickness. Reliable websites such as UnityPoint Health, Heart.org, and Medical News Today have all confirmed this.

According to Medical News Today, cold weather can increase the spread of bacteria and also weaken the immune system. It cannot, though, directly cause illnesses such as the cold or flu.

This claim may be perceived as exaggerated and misleading but it is ultimately false according to reliable sources.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323431#cold-weather-and-viruses

https://www.unitypoint.org/news-and-articles/do-you-really-get-sick-from-being-cold#:~:text=%E2%80%9CCan%20you%20get%20sick%20from,and%2For%20the%20flu.%E2%80%9D

https://www.heart.org/en/news/2021/12/17/can-the-cold-really-make-you-sick

Answer 6

Cold weather alone does not make some one sick, like you stated the cold weakens immune systems causing one to get sick. Stated in the article " Mayo Clinic Minute: Can Cold Weather Cause a Cold?" people tend to get sick in cold weather because there is more time spent indoors with other allowing time for germs to spread.

Answer 7

Cold wether does not seem like the leading cause of being sick. This article states that cold wether does make it easer for viruses to reproduce and survive however in the winter time often people are staying indoors and in close proximity to one another due to the cold temperatures which is a main cause of people being sick in the cold months. https://www.heart.org/en/news/2021/12/17/can-the-cold-really-make-you-sick

Answer 8

The claim "cold weather makes you sick" is exaggerated and misleading. Although the linked article makes claims that support the idea that "cold temperatures are linked to virus transmission," it does not blatantly state that cold weather on its own is enough to make a person sick. Multiple other health professionals agree that this is a misconception- Dr. Virginia Banks from Northeast Ohio Infectious Disease Associates states that "cold weather alone doesn't make you sick" and that "there are a lot of variables" that contribute to why people are more prone to diseases in the wintertime. Similarly, UnityPoint health provider Shannon Fetcher states that "you can't get sick from being cold in general" and that the only way the actual temperature outside can cause sickness is by getting frostbite or hypothermia, as they both "weaken the immune system, which leaves you more at-risk for getting illnesses." To support the general idea of your claim, the many factors that come with cold weather are what create a higher chance of getting sick. According to both of my sources, cold weather causes people to spend more time indoors, which allows viruses to spread more easily due to people being in close quarters. Additionally, research from PubMed Central found that colder outside temperatures do not increase the risk of infection. Instead, it is a person's body temperature that affects a virus's ability to reproduce.

https://www.unitypoint.org/news-and-articles/do-you-really-get-sick-from-being-cold#:~:text=%E2%80%9CCan%20you%20get%20sick%20from,and%2For%20the%20flu.%E2%80%9D

https://www.heart.org/en/news/2021/12/17/can-the-cold-really-make-you-sick

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323431#cold-weather-and-viruses