From the even-Steven Wall St. Journal:
Good news: A new study finds that the novel coronavirus has become less lethal over the past few months. While there’s no evidence that mutations are making the virus less deadly, treatments have improved enormously as scientists have learned more.
Doctors have observed that the coronavirus case-fatality rate seems to have decreased considerably since the early days of the pandemic. But a pre-publication study from Italian universities and local public-health authorities comparing the case-fatality rates in two provinces (Ferrara and Pescara) during March and April is the first to show this might be true.
From International Business Times:
An infectious disease expert from Italy who fought long against COVID-19 claims there might no longer be a need for a vaccine since the coronavirus that causes the disease appears to be losing its virulence. SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) is the virus responsible for COVID-19.
This surprising optimism was voiced by Professor Matteo Bassetti, head of the infectious diseases clinic at the Ospedale Policlinico San Martino in Genova, Italy. Bassetti claimed COVID-19 has been losing its virulence over the past month, and added patients — even the elderly — who would have previously died from this highly-infectious disease are now recovering.
“It was like an aggressive tiger in March and April but now it’s like a wild cat,” he pointed out. “Even elderly patients, aged 80 or 90, are now sitting up in bed and they are breathing without help. The same patients would have died in two or three days before.”
Same story many places, here’s from The [UK] Sun:
CORONAVIRUS is getting weaker and could die out on its own without a vaccine, according to a top Italian doctor.
Professor Matteo Bassetti said he is convinced the virus is “changing in severity” and patients are now surviving coronavirus infections that would have previously killed them.
He described coronavirus as once an “aggressive tiger” of a disease, which has now weakened and turned into more of a wild cat.
If his ideas are true and the virus is weakening, there’s a chance COVID-19 could disappear without a need for a vaccine.
He has continually said that in recent months, patients with the virus seem to be handling it much better than they were at the beginning of the global pandemic in Italy.
It’s a world of “it seems” this virus time around. Alleged experts not all on same page. It seems.
Professor Bassetti suggests that the strain of coronavirus could be mutating and becoming weaker, making it less lethal.
He also suggested that improved treatments and more social distancing could be the key to why people are handling the virus better than before.
So keeping your distance remains a valuable caution. Which for some of us some of the time is just fine. Solitary walks are what some of us do anyhow, depending on our neighborhood.
More to come on good (and bad) news from alleged experts and reports of same . . .
Blithe Spirit 