RAZINA MUNSHI: The ‘prevention paradox’
A country’s strong policy to combat a disease such as Covid-19 can be so successful that though the health of the nation benefits greatly, many individuals realise only how high the cost of limiting infection rates has been. Yet the lifting of restrictions may bring about many new cases of the illness
12 May 2020 - 06:00
Governments have grossly over-reacted to the pandemic, people have begun to declare. The smattering of initial voices pressing for an end to lockdowns has given way to a clamour. So governments are caving in and easing restrictions on movement and economic activity. But this only sends the Covid-19 infection rate higher – and one by one, countries are hit with a second wave of infections.
Christian Drosten, the director of the Institute of Virology at the Charité hospital in Berlin – and one of those who identified the Sars virus in 2003 – calls this the “prevention paradox”...
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