Monday 4 May 2020

Too soon.

Not that anybody asked my opinion.  And I am not an expert or even very well informed.  But I trust The New Yorker.  And yesterday, it said:

Some who argue for reopening sooner rather than later say that doing so will allow for a “controlled spread” of the disease, in which more people can develop a resistance and the population as a whole can achieve “herd immunity.” One problem with this approach is the projected number of hospitalizations and deaths along the way, which is very high. Another is that the idea assumes that those who have had covid-19 will, indeed, be immune. But, as the World Health Organization recently warned, it isn’t yet clear how effective or enduring any immunity might be. There are viruses, such as measles, for which the immunity is lifelong; for SARS and mers, which are coronaviruses, immunity seems to fade, on average, in a couple of years. For the four other known human coronaviruses, which cause varieties of the common cold, immunity lasts just months.