Marc Lipsitch, Harvard Epidemiologist Says Coronavirus Cannot Be Stopped Anymore

An epidemiologist expert from Hardvard University has issued strong and shocking considerations about the global pandemic of the covid-19 coronavirus.

Epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch of Harvard University predicted that up to 60% of the world’s adults could be infected with covid-19 and said he does not believe that “the virus can be stopped” during an interview with the magazine Der Spiegel.

“Of course, it is a projection and, like any projection, it could be wrong,” said the expert on his prediction of the spread of the new coronavirus, which has already claimed the lives of more than 4,000 people.

“But if you have a reproductive number of an infectious disease of around 2 [on average, each infected person transmits the disease to two other people], which seems to be the estimates we are getting right now, then at least half of the adult population needs to be infected before the spread can be permanently stopped, “explained the epidemiologist.

Lipsitch also stressed that it is not clear how many people are actually infected with covid-19: “It is like an iceberg, with severe cases at the upper level and asymptomatic cases below the surface. We will not know how large the last part of the iceberg, and therefore the true death rate, until the outbreak is over. ”

“I don’t think the virus can be stopped anymore. It’s too late for that,” he said, adding that there is “a great possibility” that covid-19 will be with us for a long time.

“However, there is some hope. There could be a long period with little transmission in a year or two simply because [the virus] will be so widespread that most people will become immune to it,” the specialist concluded.