New independent research from two groups, one in the States and one in China, has found significant presence of antibodies that destroy the virus present in the blood of sampled patients. The studies were small, with a similar much larger study arriving as early as next week. This suggests there may already be extensive immunity in the wider population. Other studies have found the infection rate much higher and the mortality rate lower by magnitudes, suggesting re-opening global economies is not necessarily a death sentence to millions.
All the newest evidence is pointing towards a highly infectious but relatively low mortality PROBABLY viral (because this has not actually been established yet) infection that is on par with a relatively virulent strain of the flu. Inflation of the death toll using increasingly discredited methods to record deaths has driven a fear that is unlikely justified. The medium to long term costs of the devastating overreaction will probably outweigh the damage done to health by the pandemic, by factors.
None of this is definitive yet. Larger studies are required. But indicators are we've just experienced the largest mass panic in world history, driven by supposed health experts who have been so wrong in their predictions it must surely lead to questions as to why they would ever be trusted again. The first grant to get the chop should be "Dr" Neil Ferguson's at Imperial.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01003-6
Imperial is working with Microsoft to "tidy up the code". Anyone who knows anything about Microsoft will be having a quiet chuckle at this point.
What this article is really saying, wedged in between the apologies and excuses, is this government (and governments around the world) acted on the basis of a fatally flawed model that was about as sophisticated as something you could knock up yourself on your laptop using Excel.
Which is not at all surprising given the failure of scientific modelling in just about every field you can think of, apart from one crucial exception. Engineering. Because they can't have building falling down or planes falling out of the air (unless it's Boeing). Even engineering hasn't been entirely safe from the pseudo-scientific technocrats who have infested policy making at every level. NIST's outrageous (almost comical) summary of the collapse of WTC7 after the 911 attacks was a particularly unwelcome example of a previously trustworthy institution being perverted for the sake of expediency.
At the very least we need a detailed inquiry into all these so-called experts who provide the "science" for our elected officials to "follow". What's the point of voting for our decision makers when those same people make decisions on the back of advice from little known individuals who keep getting it so terribly wrong?
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
New independent research from two groups, one in the States and one in China, has found significant presence of antibodies that destroy the virus present in the blood of sampled patients. The studies were small, with a similar much larger study arriving as early as next week. This suggests there may already be extensive immunity in the wider population. Other studies have found the infection rate much higher and the mortality rate lower by magnitudes, suggesting re-opening global economies is not necessarily a death sentence to millions.
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