General Article Coronavirus control measures aren't pointless

Topic Selected: Global Health
This article is 4 years old. Click here to view the latest articles for this topic.

Coronavirus control measures aren't pointless – just slowing down the pandemic could save millions of lives

The point is to make sure hospitals have space for those who get sick. Ariel Skelley/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Matthew McQueen, University of Colorado Boulder

Anywhere from 20% to 60% of the adults around the world may be infected with the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19. That’s the estimate from leading epidemiological experts on communicable disease dynamics. Even the best-case scenario using those numbers means nearly 40,000,000 adults will be infected in the United States alone.

Some people may start to feel fatalistic in the face of those kinds of statistics. There are no vaccines and no specific treatments for people who get sick. What’s the point of fighting something that’s bound to happen anyway? Why not just let the epidemic run its course?

But public health officials and medical professionals have been advocating for ra...

Would you like to see the rest of this article and all the other benefits that Issues Online can provide with?

Sign up now for an immediate no obligation FREE TRIAL and view the entire collection