Thread by @BillHanage

With many other experts in infectious disease and allied fields, I'm proud to sign and have done my bit to help write this in @TheLancet which explains the *actual* expert consensus on the #COVID19 pandemic and the need for action marlin-prod.literatumonline.com/pb-assets/Lanc…

The letter states as clearly as can be that approaches to the pandemic that seek immunity through natural infection are dangerous, and explains why

https://twitter.com/TheLancet/status/1316507074415779840?s=20

This is a collaborative effort with many brilliant people, but @dgurdasani1 deserves special mention, for the tireless way she combined viewpoints and expertise from many different fields to build this statement of *consensus*.

We are calling it the #JohnSnowMemorandum. Why? Because John Snow was the pioneering epidemiologist who removed the handle from the pump in London's Soho that was the source of a dreadful cholera outbreakhttps://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5334a1.htm

After the pump handle was removed, the outbreak dwindled. At the time 'germ theory' was controversial and John Snow was no stranger to political conflicts with those who did not want to hear what he had to say en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow

It never pays to pretend science points in a direction it doesn't, not in the long run. Nature cannot be fooled, and we will need science to defeat the virus.

And winter is coming

Full text now available at thelancet.com/journals/lance…