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The coronavirus pandemic: can we handle such epidemics better?
Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine ( IF 8.8 ) Pub Date : 2020-05-01 , DOI: 10.1177/0141076820924587 Peter C Gøtzsche 1
Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine ( IF 8.8 ) Pub Date : 2020-05-01 , DOI: 10.1177/0141076820924587 Peter C Gøtzsche 1
Affiliation
The pandemic started in Wuhan, China, in November 2019. Like several previous virus pandemics, it has been suspected of originating in an animal market, but this is not clear. The disease is called COVID-19, named after the year it started and is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Coronaviruses are best known as causes of the common cold, but some variants have caused severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The disease spread rapidly to the rest of the world, and prophylactic measures were introduced to contain the spread of the virus to avoid overloading hospitals and intensive care units. Some of the simpler measures clearly work, for example: frequent handwashing; avoiding shaking hands, hugging and kissing people; keeping a distance of 2m; and coughing in one’s elbow rather than in the hand. Forbidding gatherings of people is also effective. The infection hit Bergamo in Italy very hard because one-third of the city watched a Champions League football match in Milano on 19 February 2020 and celebrated the local team’s win deep into the night. On the negative side, it is a dream scenario for any ruler with dictatorship tendencies to make democratic demonstrations unlawful. Many countries have used the police or military to ensure that people did what they were told. Borders, kindergartens, schools, universities, shopping centres, restaurants and sports facilities were closed, meetings were cancelled and international travel was forbidden. Some of the measures were illogical, e.g. in Denmark we were allowed to walk on the fairways as long as we didn’t look like golfers, and most of the draconian measures lacked any evidence in their support. We closed our borders with Germany and Sweden, although we had more coronavirus than they had. Using the same logic, we might as well have closed the island of Fyn, in the middle of Denmark, which is easy, as there is a bridge on each side that can be blocked by the military.
更新日期：2020-05-01
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