Kim Hill is a New Zealand journalist, famous for presenting Saturday Morning on Radio New Zealand National. Last Saturday she interviewed Cambridge virologist Chris Smith about coronavirus. You can listen to the podcast here – Chris Smith: Virologist on latest Covid-19 science.
Chris talks about lots of interesting things including whether it’s realistic for places like New Zealand to completely eradicate the virus.
“Most people are of the opinion, given how well optimised this new coronavirus is, it has a really high prospect of becoming another circulating coronavirus and causing seasonal infections and cold-like symptoms or in rare cases more severe outbreaks, because by the time that presumably happens the vast majority of us will have become immune to it either because a vaccine has been invented or because we’ve become naturally infected with it.”
He also talks about some interesting research he was involved in some years ago where they measured the speed and distance that particles in a sneeze can travel. The conclusion from this was it’s much further than 2m.
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We’ve extended the level 4 lockdown to 11:59pm on Monday 27th, which is ANZAZ Day commemorated, seeing as the 25th is a Saturday this year. Then we go into level 3 for two weeks. Most people are okay with this, although there are a few dissenters, of course, and not necessarily only those who have businesses. I’m not sure, either, whether we can eradicate this virus, and I expect we may see resurgences of it. But maybe they can be stamped on much more quickly and effectively in future, because of the containment we’ve practised now, and the knowledge gained from actually being able to gather knowledge during the containment, instead of just having to deal with a massive state of emergency on the ground.
I wonder what will be written about the corona viruses when time and perspective have played their part. I suspect it will be a case of “we were fortunate it had not happened before”. As science uncovers more of the workings of the world around us, we will learn how many bullets we have dodged along the way.
Yes, I agree. I remember when the first SARS was around early this century and was amazed that it was contained and didn’t spread. I think we have been very fortunate. Far worse still to come is antibiotic resistance. Imagine that world? We won’t be able to have routine surgery …