The Week UK - 28.03.2020

(Nandana) #1

4 NEWS


THEWEEK 28 March 2020


The main stories...


Chinaraisedthealert,asdidSouth


Korea.TheWestmayhavebeenslow


offthemark,saidRichardHortonin


TheGuardian,buttherealmysteryis


whyBritainpersistedindoingsolittle


evenaftertherestofEuropeacted.


Havingdecidedtoallowacontrolled


epidemicoflargenumbersofpeople


togenerate“herdimmunity”,the


Governmentswitchedtoapolicyof


suppressionlastweek,reportedlyin


responsetonewdatashowingthat


Covid-19wasmoredangerousthan


previouslythought.Yetithasbeen


clearsinceJanuarythatthevirusistoo


dangeroustoignore.


Actually,thedataonCovid-19is


anythingbutclear,saidJohnIoannidis,


co-directorofStanfordMeta-Research


InnovationCentre,onStatNews.com.


Westilldon’tknowhowlethalitis.The


onlytestofanentire,closedpopulationisthequarantined


DiamondPrincesscruiseship. Thecasefatality rate there was


1%, but thiswasalargelyelderlypopulation, sothereal rate


may be far lower.Ifthat’sthe case,we maybegrossly over-


reacting to thisoutbreak, likean elephant jumpingoff acliff


to escapeabothersome cat. The costsof our precautions also


have tobeweighed againstthe


unknown consequencesofa


prolonged lockdown.There


will be aprice,saidTom


Whipple inTheTimes.


One studyhassuggestedthatif the lockdown leads toafall


in GDPofmore than 6.4%, moreyears of lifewillbe lost due


to recessionthan willbegainedfrombeating the virus.


Another new study byOxford academicshassuggestedthat


Covid-19 mayhavealready infected asmuchas halfthe UK


populationwithoutus realising, said Alastair Benn on


Reaction.Thatwould mean we’re alreadycloseto developing


herd immunity.The findingswill need to becorroborated


through large-scale antibodytesting.Donald Trump warned


thisweek thatwe “cannot letthe cure be worse thanthe


problem itself”. For once, hewas right, said PhilipJohnston in


The DailyTelegraph. Thedeath toll fromthe viruswill“shoot


up” in the nextfew weeks,but we must remember that in any


normal year, 600,000 people in the UK die, many of them after


contracting flu orpneumonia. Whilewe must of course seek


to limit the number of deaths from Covid-19 and protect the


vulnerable,we must also strive to get the rest of the country


“back to work, and soon”.


AsBorisJohnsonannouncedan


unprecedentedshutdownofthecountry


thisweek,moreevidenceemergedthat


thecoronavirusepidemicis“galloping


ahead”,saidTheTimes.Afurther 87


peopleinBritainsuccumbedtothevirus


onTuesday,thehighestdailytollsofar,


takingthetotalnumberofdeathsinthe


nationto 422 .Morethan8,000cases


havebeenconfirmedintheUK,andthe


pressureontheNHSismountingfast.


Worldwide,thenumberofcaseshas


passed4 00 ,0 00 andaquarterofthe


world’spopulationislivingunder


lockdown.Amongthosewhohave


testedpositiveforCovid-19arePrince


Charles,USsenatorRandPaulandthe


disgracedmogulHarveyWeinstein.The


UKgovernmenthopesthelatestlock-


downmeasures(seepage 24 )will


changepublicbehaviourandhaltthe


virus’sspreadwithoutthemoreextreme


enforcementintroducedinItaly,FranceandSpain,whereno


onecanleavehomewithoutappropriatepaperwork. Whether


its strategyworks, “wewill findout in duecourse”.


Themeasureswillsurelyhelp, saidThe Guardian.In Italy,


which introduced itslockdownafortnight earlier thanthe UK,


there wasevidencethat the


rate ofnewinfections had been


slowing. Britainshouldhave


acted earlier.Johnson’s


responseto coronavirus has


been “too little,too late”, agreed The Independent. Hehas


been resistantfrom thestart tothe ideaof imposingany


statutory limits onindividual or corporatefreedom.As a


result,it now looks unlikelythat theNHS willsecure all the


necessaryresources, inparticularventilators, intime forthe


comingsurgeof Covid-19 patients.The “harrowingscenes”


we’vewitnessed in Italian hospitals willlikely be replicated


inBritain soon. Things areprettydire already, said Robert


Pestonin TheSpectator. Doctorsand nurses complainthat


acritical lackofprotectiveclothing is puttingtheir health at


risk,andturning them all into “super-spreaders”.


The West as awholewas too slow to tackle this crisis, said


Emma Graham-Harrison in The Observer. Mostleaders


complacentlyassumedtheinitial outbreak wouldbe contained


near its source. Southeast Asian countries, scarred bytheir


experienceof the2003Sarsepidemic,took no chances.


Taiwan, “helped perhapsbyhaving an epidemiologist as vice-


president”, started tracing passengers from Wuhan as soon as


The coronavirus lockdown: too little, too late?


COVER CARTOON: HOWARD MCWILLIAM


It wasn’t all bad


Venice’s canals have turned a


vivid clear blue, owing to the


lack of traffic. Normally, a


stream of taxi-boats, vaporetti


waterbuses and gondoliers


churns up sediment, making


the water murky. But with the


tourists all gone, and residents


in lockdown, the water has


grown so clear, fish can be seen


swimming in it. Sadly, reports


of dolphins in Venice turned out


to be fake news, but in Rome,


ducks have been photographed


taking advantage of the rare


peace at the Trevi Fountain.


The former footballers Gary


Neville and Ryan Giggs have


closed their two hotels in


Manchester to the public, and


offered up their 176 beds free


of charge to NHS workers,


for stays of up to ten days.


Meanwhile in Brussels, a


chocolatier named Frédéric


Blondeel is delivering


emergency chocolate to


quarantined and self-isolating


local residents. And in


Teddington, west London, a


stables has been bringing its


ponies to the windows of local


people in isolation in order to


“spread some smiles”.


The Archbishop of


Canterbury led his first


virtual Sunday service


at the weekend, to mark


Mother’s Day. Recorded


in the crypt chapel at


Lambeth Palace in


London, the service


included prayers, hymns


andashort sermon, and


was broadcast across 39


local BBC radio stations.


In the Lombardy region


of Italy,apriest asked his


5,500-strong congregation to send him photos of themselves, and


taped them to the pews so he could still celebrate mass with them.


AUSCatholic priest, meanwhile, is offering drive-through and


contact-free confessions outside his Maryland chapel.


“We may be overreacting, like an elephant


jumping offacliff to escapeabothersome cat”


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