Six months into the pandemic researchers continue to be perplexed by COVID-19. There are many unknowns with the virus, and one of the most controversial is its deadliness. Leading health institutions have warned that COVID-19 is much more dangerous than the seasonal flu and that without expansive public health measures millions of people could die from the virus. But there are some in the scientific community who disagree. Antibody testing of large population groups indicates that we could be underestimating the number of people who have been infected – which means we are overestimating the death rate. Given these findings they question whether lockdowns are the way to approach a possible second wave of COVID-19 this autumn. In this episode of the Munk Debates Podcast medical experts Jay Bhattacharya and Sten Vermund debate the essence of these two competing arguments.
Sources:
Associated Press, TIME, BBC, TRT World, Bloomberg, CNBC, Unherd.com, Yahoo Finance, AZ Family, MSNBC, The Sun, RTE News

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