I'm very surprised that there is little or no information that I can see on the total number infected. This would seem to be a key piece of knowledge for managing the epidemic and for public understanding.
There was a 'REACT' study in June by Imperial when 100,000 more or less random home antibody tests were done. The results indicated that around 5% of the population had probably been infected (about 3.4 million). The official number of cases, based on tests, is even now only around 400,000.
I believe another exercise has been done with results due.
I think we probably could both avoid another lockdown and open the NHS for normal business if, and only if, the population could be persuaded to avoid unnecessary exposure to high risk situations and activities. But that won't happen - the ball went over the wall some time ago thanks to the way the government has destroyed its own credibility and large numbers appear now to be behaving in a way that suggests they think the whole thing is a hoax.
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