[wenbert]

I'm no expert but NZ houses suck. Little to no insulation. Some air can go in gaps between doors and windows, etc. Central heating is non-existant. Old stock. Mouldy. Damp. During winter some landlords tell their tenants to open windows to air the house out. That might be it?

[thechao]

Colds are spread by a virus, not by air conditioning, or the lack of it.

[lostlogin]

Cramped, damp and cold housing is bad for health and New Zealand has a lot of both these problems.

[plorkyeran]

Ambient conditions can make it more likely to manifest symptoms of a cold if you are infected. They will not make the virus appear out of nowhere.

[lostlogin]

Rheumatic fever is particularly problematic in NZ. There are a host of factors and NZs dealing with is has been bad.

[thechao]

I would love to see the paper that shows that damp or cold affects infection rate. Cramped, for sure, for proximal infection.