4 NEWS
THEWEEK 14 March 2020
The main stories...
reasonsforthisapproach,”said
JulietSamuelinTheDailyTelegraph.
Hugedisruptionstoeverydaylife
carrysteepcostsoftheirown.And
therearegroundsforthinkingthatit
wasChina’ssuccessintracingand
isolatingindividuals,ratherthanits
drasticquarantinemeasures,thatwas
the“keyfactorindampeningdown
thevirus’sspread”.Perhapsthiscrisiswillbeeverybit
asbadaspeoplearepredicting,said
SimonJenkinsinTheGuardian,but
Iamnotbuyingthehype.I’veheard
thisstufftoomanytimesbefore.
Rememberthat 1997 birdflu
outbreakthatweweretoldmight
killmillionsworldwide?Orthe 2003
Sarsoutbreakthatwasreportedashavinga“ 25 %chanceof
killingtensofmillions”?Orthe 2009 swinefluoutbreakthat
thethenchiefmedicalofficer,LiamDonaldson,saidmightkill
65,000people?Theseterrifyingwarningscould,ofcourse,
haveallcometrue, but“shouldpublic life reallybeconducted
on aworst-casebasis”?It’s importanttokeep asenseof
perspective, said Ross Clark intheDailyMail.In China’s
Hubeiprovince,wherethevirusoriginated, only about 20%
of the population isreported to have beenaffected,andthe
country’s epidemic now seems
to be in“steep decline”.And
the numberofdeaths fromthe
virusglobally is “still tiny”
compared with the amount
of people who succumb each yearto regularflu.“Take thedirestpredi ctions withapinchof salt if youlike,”
said AlexMassie in TheTimes,but evenifyoudivide the
worst-case scenarios bythree,thingslook badenough.
Healthofficialshave projected thatwe’llget half of allour
coronavirus cases over athree-weekperiod,and thatas many
as 4% ofpatients might require hospitalisation. In thecase
of Scotland, thatwould imply some200,000peopleneeding
hospital treatment in acountrywith14,000 hospitalbeds;
whenyou consider that, youcanappreciate“the scale ofthe
potentialproblem”.If thepressureon hospitalsisn’t scary
enough, said ZoeWilliamsinThe Guardian,there’salsothe
warning from the chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty,
that closing schools maybe necessary “for quite alongtime,
probably morethan twomonths”. Howwould theUK cope
with that? It would bring the country toastandstill: “no
flood, no ashcloud, no financialcrash comesclose to losing”
such aswathe of the workforcetochildcare and forthat long.“Foranyonestillcomplacentabout
theseriousnessofthecoronavirus
pandemic”,eventsthisweek
providedsomethingofa“wake-up
call”,saidTheTimes.OnMonday,
Italy’sgovernmentputtheentire
countryintolockdown(seepage 22 ),
stokingfearsofaglobalrecession.
Thevirus,meanwhile,continuedto
spreadrapidlyelsewhere.Britainis
nowreportingmoredailycasesthan
China:asofWednesday,thecountry
hadregistered 460 confirmedcases
andsixdeaths.Amongthose
diagnosedwithcoronaviruswas
thejuniorhealthministerNadine
Dorries.Assupermarketsreported
somepanicbuyingofhousehold
staples,BorisJohnsonurgedthe
countryto“pulltogetherinaunitedandnationaleffort”to
beatthevirus.Toshoreuptheeconomy,theBankofEngland
announcedanemergencyinterestratecut,andtheChancellor,
RishiSunak,usedhisfirstBudgettounveila£30bnrelief
package,alongwith amassofnewspendingmeasures.Covid-19’s onward march is a“menacingprospect”,said
the Daily Express.The fearis that it willsoonbe as rampant
here asitisinI taly, an dthat we’ll have tointroduce the same
quarantine measures. The
graphssuggest we’llbe
where Italyisinless than two
weeks,said Chris Smyth inThe
Times,but “extrapolation is a
dangerous formof prediction”. South Koreaonce appeared to
be runningtwo days ahead ofItaly, but new cases therehave
tailed off, which may be downtothe different way the two
countries managed theiroutbreaks. UnlikeItaly, whichwas
slow tostart testing,Seoul diditon“anunprecedented
scale”from theoutset. The UKis nowsteppingup testing
dramatically, which mayenableitto avoid following Italy.Britain hasadoptedamore relaxedapproach thanmost of
Europe,said George Parker inthe FT. France, for instance,
has already banned gatheringsof morethan 1,000 people,
while Germanyhas urgedits citizens toavoidpublic transport.
Johnsonhastakenthe“politicallyriskystrategy–underpinned
by what he claims is thebest medical andbehavioural science
–toavoid drastic measures” at this stage.Closingdown
schools andordering people toworkfrom home would, he
believes,have littleeffect now,butwouldleave people fed up
and less likely to comply with such measuresint hree to six
weeks’ time, when the crisis might peak. “There are goodThe coronavirus: is Britain doing enough?
COVER CARTOON: HOWARD MCWILLIAM
It wasn’t all bad
A64-year-old Briton has
become the oldest woman to
row across the Atlantic, having
only taken up the sport six
years ago. Sara Brewer, a
personal assistant to the group
chairman at HSBC Holdings,
completed the 3,000-mile
journey with her 35-year-old
rowing partner Ann Prestidge
last weekend. The pair endured
65ft-high waves, broken oars,
and injuries during the
crossing. It took them 86 days
and they raised £45,000 for
two charities in the process.ANamibian super-sleuth has
identified–and shamed–a
group of tourists who’d driven
around Namibia and South
Africa spraying graffiti tags on
local landmarks. Nrupesh Soni
was spurred into action after
seeing thatacolonial-era
railway station in the Namib
desert had been defaced. He
did some digging online, found
footage that they had posted of
themselves on their trip–and
called on other users to help
him trace them. The men turned
out to be from France, and the
story made front-page news in
their hometown of Lyon.Vast underwater
meadows which had
been lost to pollution
and shipping damage are
being replanted around
the UK coast. Seagrass
meadows, which were
once common in British
waters, store carbon 35
times faster than tropical
rainforests, and harbour
up to 40 times more
marine life than seabeds
without grass. As part of
the Seagrass Ocean Rescue project, 800,000 seeds have so far been
planted by feedingaropeinto the water withabag of seeds every
metre. The aim is to place 12 miles of rope on the sea floor in total,
in order to create tens of thousands of square feet of meadow.“Even if you divide the worst-case scenarios
by three, things look bad enough”Germany has urged its citizens to avoid public transport
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