WILL THERE BE A SECOND PEAK?
We will be facing COVID-19 for many months to come. We are still far from achieving herd immunity, where enough people have become infected (and therefore, it is hoped, immune) to halt the disease’s spread. It is also likely that we won’t have a vaccine for at least another 12 months. As a result, we run a constant risk of a second peak in cases, especially as we ease lockdown restrictions. The key is to keep down the reproduction number R, which measures how many people a single infected person will pass the disease to. At the peak of the UK outbreak, R was between 2 and 3. It has since dropped below 1, and will need to stay there if the virus is to be brought under control. Two things will help achieve this: personal precautionary measures (keeping physical distance, handwashing, wearing face coverings on public transport, avoiding crowded spaces), and public health interventions (testing, tracing, and isolation). As long as these precautions are in place, we can prevent any new outbreaks from ripping through the population. The aim is to be able to ride a gentler ebb and flow of cases until we have a vaccine.
WILL THE VIRUS GET WORSE IN WINTER?
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November - December 2020-Ausgabe von BBC Earth.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November - December 2020-Ausgabe von BBC Earth.
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Eighty years ago Japan’s surprise raid on Pearl Harbor forced the US offthe fence and into the Second World War. Ellie Cawthorne is making a new HistoryExtra podcast series about the attack, and she spoke to Christopher Harding about the long roots of Japan’s disastrous decision
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Science has mapped the surface of Mars and translated the code for life. By comparison, we know next to nothing about what’s between our ears. Over the next few pages, we ask leading scientists to answer some of the most important questions about our brains…
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Detecting the dead
Following personal tragedy, the creator of that most rational of literary figures, Sherlock Holmes, developed an obsession with spiritualism. Fiona Snailham and Anna Maria Barry explore the supernatural interests of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
