10 MORE Experts Criticising the Coronavirus Panic

“Although some experts have shed doubt on the strength and length of the human immune response to the virus, the emerging evidence made her confident that humanity would build up herd immunity against Covid19.” 

Dr. Sunetra Gupta et al. (a Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology at the University of Oxford, the Scientific Medal by the Zoological Society of London and the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award)

“The disease per se is like the flu in a normal winter.”

Dr Karin Mölling (a full professor and director of the Institute of Medical Virology at the University of Zurich from 1993 until her retirement in 2008 and received multiple honours and awards for her work)

“All measures that we take must be feasible over a longer period of time.” Otherwise, the population will lose acceptance of the entire corona strategy.”

Dr Anders Tegnell (a physician and civil servant who has been State Epidemiologist of the Public Health Agency of Sweden since 2013)

“There is no evidence to show that the 2019 coronavirus is more lethal than respiratory adenoviruses, influenza viruses, coronaviruses from previous years, or rhinoviruses responsible for the common cold.”

Dr Pablo Goldschmidt (an Argentine-French virologist specializing in tropical diseases)

“Projections of the death toll could plausibly be orders of magnitude too high. The true fatality rate is the portion of those infected who die, not the deaths from identified positive cases.”

Dr Eran Bendavid and Dr Jay Bhattacharya (professors of medicine and public health at Stanford University)

“I cannot answer my nagging doubts, there does not seem to be anything special about this particular epidemic of influenza-like illness.”

Dr Tom Jefferson (an advisor to the Italian National Agency for Regional Health Services)

“To put things in proportion, the number of deaths of coronavirus in Italy is 10% of the number of deaths of influenza in the country between 2016-2017.”

Dr Michael Levitt (a Professor of biochemistry at Stanford University and received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.)

“An overestimation of the CFR also occurs when a deceased person is found to have been infected with SARS-CoV-2, but this was not the cause of death.”

German Network for Evidence-Based Medicine (an association of German scientists, researchers and medical professionals)

“Likewise, the actual rate of new cases is probably at least 10,000 a day. If these numbers sound large, though, remember that the world is a very big place. From a global perspective, these numbers are very small.”

Dr Richard Schabas (the former Chief Medical Officer of Ontario, Medical Officer of Hastings and Prince Edward Public Health and Chief of Staff at York Central Hospital)

10 MORE Experts Criticising the Coronavirus Panic

Another article on reality check - curve-flattening vs economic armaggedon, a great article for you to digest:

Why Flattening the Curve is Overrated

12 Experts Questioning the Coronavirus Panic

“The horrifying impact on the world economy threatens the existence of countless people. The consequences on medical care are profound.”  

Dr Sucharit Bhakdi (A specialist in microbiology; one of the most cited research scientists in German history)

“We should be asking questions like “How did you find out this virus was dangerous?”, “How was it before?”, “Didn’t we have the same thing last year?”, “Is it even something new?”

Dr Wolfgang Wodarg (A former chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe)

“In Hubei, in the province of Hubei, where there has been the most cases and deaths by far, the actual number of cases reported is 1 per 1000 people and the actual rate of deaths reported is 1 per 20,000. So maybe that would help to put things into perspective.”

Dr Joel Kettner (A former Chief Public Health Officer for Manitoba province and Medical Director of the International Centre for Infectious Diseases)

“If we had not known about a new virus out there, and had not checked individuals with PCR tests, the number of total deaths due to “influenza-like illness” would not seem unusual this year.”

Dr John Ioannidis (A director of the Stanford Prevention Research Center, and co-director of the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS))

“There is a very good example that we all forget: the swine flu in 2009. That was a virus that reached the world from Mexico and until today there is no vaccination against it. But what? At that time there was no Facebook or there maybe was but it was still in its infancy. The coronavirus, in contrast, is a virus with public relations.”

Dr Yoram Lass (An Israeli former Director General of the Health Ministry)

“We should better integrate the scientific facts into the political decisions.”

Dr Pietro Vernazza (A Swiss physician specialising Infectious Diseases at the Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen)

“Italy has imposed a lockdown and has the opposite effect. They quickly reached their capacity limits, but did not slow down the virus spread within the lockdown.”

Frank Ulrich Montgomery (Former President of the German Medical Association and Deputy Chairman of the World Medical Association)

“The new pathogen is not that dangerous, it is even less dangerous than Sars-1.”

Prof. Hendrik Streeck (A director of the Institute of Virology and HIV Research, at Bonn University)

“The problem of SARS-CoV-2 is probably overestimated, as 2.6 million people die of respiratory infections each year compared with less than 4000 deaths for SARS-CoV-2 at the time of writing.”

Dr Yanis Roussel et. al. (A researcher from the Institut Hospitalo-universitaire Méditerranée Infection, Marseille)

“I am deeply concerned that the social, economic and public health consequences of this near-total meltdown of normal life will be long-lasting and calamitous, possibly graver than the direct toll of the virus itself.”

Dr David Katz (A founding director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center)

“The best alternative will probably entail letting those at low risk for serious disease continue to work, keep business and manufacturing operating, and “run” society, while at the same time advising higher-risk individuals to protect themselves through physical distancing and ramping up our health-care capacity as aggressively as possible.”

Michael T. Osterholm (Regents professor and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota)

“Our main problem is that no one will ever get in trouble for measures that are too draconian. They will only get in trouble if they do too little. So, our politicians and those working with public health do much more than they should do.”

Dr Peter Goetzsche (A professor of Clinical Research Design and Analysis at the University of Copenhagen)

12 Experts Questioning the Coronavirus Panic

Which one is scarier: TB, the flu, or Conoravirus?

As the chart below amply illustrates, the global death rate of COVID-19 remains puny at 0.000060%, and even when annualised, stands at 0.00025%.

Even assuming the death toll will climb tenfold from here, the figure will only exceed Whooping Cough (0.0021%) and still much below seasonal flu at 0.0051%:

Source: WHO, CRC

So, why are people not panicking about the flu with much higher death rate, or for that matter, the even deadlier TB with a death rate 0.021% (which is 4 times as severe as the flu)?

Although total death number will continue to climb, the fast approaching warm summer weather should slow if not stop the spread of this new form of flu, as the seasonality pattern in the US indicates typically a steep decline starts in April, bottoming in July:

Plus the fact that the global death trajectory (see grey line below) should moderate further given China (the biggest affected region) numbers have stablised, with growth rates falling by the day.

Despite obvious conclusion from above, we continue to publish the disease figures in our regular chart updates:
  


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hoping to do our part in dissipating what looks like dispropotionate reactions by politicians and the public alike.