On the cusp of a much heralded ‘2nd wave’ hitting us, we need to remain factual, rational, and proportionate. These recent articles help us see beyond the usual media hype and so called ‘expert opinions’:
1) We have overwhelmingly overreacted on the issue of COVID-19
2) Infection Fatality Rate (IFR) of this virus is merely 0.26%
3) Governments expanded their power and strengthened their control over people by enforcing regulation, adopting mass surveillance and useless rules (e.g. prohibit group gatherings with more than 50 people in public places)
4) The lockdown measure has hurt the economy and life-quality severely
5) One effective method that is proven by numbers to cope with COVID-19 is “Herd immunity threshold” (HIT)
21 May 2020 by Michael Klompas, M.D., M.P.H., Charles A. Morris, M.D., M.P.H., Julia Sinclair, M.B.A., Madelyn Pearson, D.N.P., R.N., and Erica S. Shenoy, M.D., Ph.D.
Key points:
1) Mask may reduce the likelihood of transmission
2) Masking alone is not panacea. Focusing on universal masking alone may, paradoxically, lead to more transmission
3) Mask serves more a visible reminder of the importance of social distancing