I want to hear his views on the outbreak that is happening right now: coronavirus. I wonder if we are not overreacting. After all, so far it has killed a fraction of those who die from seasonal flu.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not the scaremongering type,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I think this is serious in the sense that we can\u2019t afford not to consider it as a serious threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could be that, indeed, it\u2019s going to be over in a few months,\u201d he continues, crunching into a tempura-covered sage leaf. \u201cBut just take the counterfactual. We say, \u2018OK, it\u2019s fine and we don\u2019t do anything.\u2019 I bet that we would already have had far more cases in Singapore, the UK, Germany. Let\u2019s not forget, we are already well over 1,000 deaths. That\u2019s not a detail….\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s clearly not Sars,\u201d he continues, referring to severe acute respiratory syndrome, which killed nearly one in 10 who contracted it 17 years ago. \u201cThat\u2019s the good news. But the bad news is, it spreads much faster. The Sars virus sits deep in your lungs. With this virus, it seems that it\u2019s in your throat and that\u2019s why it\u2019s far more contagious.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecondly, we have no vaccine. All we have is medieval ways of containment: isolation, quarantine, contact tracing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piot remembers hearing about the first cases of a mysterious virus in Los Angeles in 1981. \u201cThe first report of HIV was six or seven gay men in California. Cumulatively, now we have, like, 75m people who have been infected. Who would have thought that then? Nobody. I\u2019d rather be accused of overreacting than of not doing my job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a> (subscription).<\/p>\n “I\u2019m really not a risk-taker” – Peter Piot on coronavirus & his extraordinary life in public health https:\/\/t.co\/az9KGfX0LX<\/a> via @financialtimes<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 david pilling (@davidpilling) February 29, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n