# Why do more people get sick in the fall/winter? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 27, 2003, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-more-people-get-sick-in-the-fall-winter/204086 "2003-09-27T01:14:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Metallicblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@Metallicblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metallicblue)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-more-people-get-sick-in-the-fall-winter/204086/1 "2003-09-27T01:14:02Z")
I’ve been wondering why more people get sick when the weather starts getting colder. Does it have any correlation with kids returning to school? The shools act as little bacterial/viral breeding grounds which are then brought home to parents and then on to coworkers? ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-more-people-get-sick-in-the-fall-winter/204086/2 "2003-09-27T04:06:23Z")
Not a doctor, but I’ve heard the explanation that in cold weather people are simply indoors more, close together and swapping germs and viruses. Thus it applies to office workers as well as families with children in school. Of course, then there are people like my mother-in-law who believe that coldness causes illness. Her house is usually stiflingly hot. During the summer she had been quite healthy, and then one Sunday went to church, which was air conditioned. She caught a cold. She was convinced that the AC had made her ill, not being closed into a smallish room with dozens of other people. And of course, part of the rite she practices involves taking turns kissing a sacred object. But it was the chilliness of the room that caused her cold. Right. ---
**Author:** ![Gadfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@Gadfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadfly)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-more-people-get-sick-in-the-fall-winter/204086/3 "2003-09-27T04:14:33Z")
Ask the Cold From Hell that I got yesterday. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-more-people-get-sick-in-the-fall-winter/204086/4 "2003-09-27T04:40:03Z")
[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4\_104.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_104.html) ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-more-people-get-sick-in-the-fall-winter/204086/5 "2003-09-27T05:19:34Z")
I have to agree with the indoor theory. When I lived in Naples, Fl and the Keys I never got sick. Come to think of it I only know of one other person off hand all the time I was down there that got ill. On a seperate note I knew a lot of people with allergies down there. Maybe that keeps colds away? ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-more-people-get-sick-in-the-fall-winter/204086/6 "2003-09-27T11:44:24Z")
In wet cool\* weather do viruses on surfaces remain viable for longer? - 10-20 C