I woke up last week to grim news: 368 deaths in Italy in 24 hours on March 16. “It’s happening, ” I told myself as I felt my stomach knot. “It”, Covid-19, is crushing communities, tearing across the planet with unstoppable force. To face a real pandemic – after hearing of the possibility in public health for years – seems surreal.
There’s no quick fix to stop this. The cat is out of the bag – that cat of containment. The problem is among us, unseen and growing, like a terrorist threat. We have no idea what follows next. Modelling done before for pandemics was based on influenza. There’s no saying whether 20% or 60% of the global population will get infected, say experts. Whatever, it won’t be pretty. We can just hope for fewer infections with a warm summer.