coronavirus is real nasty, vicious and lethal

Unfortunately, the damage that Covid-19 causes is almost certainly not confined entirely to the death rate. We may not know for some time exactly what else it causes, but even now we have enough evidence to know that there are other problems out there. Letting everyone get infected is a strategy that, even ignoring the enormous death toll, could leave us much worse off as a society.

Despite its exponential growth, its fear factor and disruption to daily lives, the coronavirus still has a long way to go before its social and economic impacts topple a single autocratic leader or bring down even one bad government. The fact that such a pandemic can't provoke political change in even the shakiest regimes is a sobering lesson in the more extreme difficulty of persuading a dying planet that it needs to take drastic climate action.

The coronavirus is a real  nasty, vicious, potentially lethal It is relentless and capricious. Some infected people have no symptoms at all while others fight for life on ventilators in an Intensive Care Unit. Some victims die, while there is clear evidence emerging, , that those who recover can suffer long-term mental and physical harm.

And immunity for those who recover may be short-lived, so the concept of herd-immunity is probably out of consideration. The biggest threat we face in the coming weeks and months is herd-complacency.

All the signs indicate, as we grapple with the off-again, on-again easing of lockdown restrictions, that the medical establishment is nowhere near understanding exactly how the virus works, what its ramifications are, and how to fight back with a vaccine.