Social distancing is controlling Covid-19; now scientists need to figure out which measures are most effective
A new, lower #coronavirus death estimate is prompting officials to be cautiously optimistic about controlling the outbreak. But which social distancing measure has reduced transmission the most?
by Sharon Begley
Apr 09, 2020
4 minutes
Banning gatherings, having people stay at home, closing schools, and other measures to reduce the spread of Covid-19 are working so well that an influential model of the pandemic’s course now projects that the number of U.S deaths from the new coronavirus by early August will be 60,415 rather than the minimum of 100,000 that it forecast last month.
The new, lower estimate is prompting officials to be cautiously optimistic about controlling the outbreak, possibly by early summer. But it comes with a mystery: Which social distancing has reduced transmission the most?
Figuring that out will be crucial as policymakers look
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