March 25, 2020

expert reaction to a report on the effectiveness of social distancing in China and the dropping of these measures after containment of the virus

Report 11 on COVID-19 from the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, looks at the effectiveness of social distancing in China and the dropping of these measures after containment of the virus.

Prof Brendan Wren, Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said:

“The latest data from Wuhan is encouraging and points the way to implementing strict social distancing measures in getting the epidemic under control.  However, we still have no idea of the proportion of the population who are immunologically naïve to the virus and still suspectable to the potential re-emergence of the virus.  A reliable antibody test to sample a large cross-section of the population for COVID-19 infection/carriage is a current global imperative.”

* https://www.imperial.ac.uk/mrc-global-infectious-disease-analysis/news–wuhan-coronavirus/

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-Exiting-Social-Distancing-24-03-2020.pdf

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www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19/

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