STEPHEN CRANSTON: How Covid-19 turned futurology into lockdownology
Constraints to fight coronavirus remain necessary as health systems collapse — the only issue is the strategy a country must follow
Michael Power, the country’s leading futurologist, has inevitably stepped into the debate on how best to tackle Covid-19. His employer, Ninety-One (formerly Investec Asset Management) was bound to wheel him out to address their intermediary stakeholders.
But he probably didn’t say what they wanted to hear — he condemned columnists who advocate a policy of “set my people free” by relaxing the lockdown. Power says the priority needs to be to bring the R-Zero, or reproduction rate of the virus, down below one. With no constraints at all it will rise to at least three, leading to exponential growth in infections...
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