- Infectious diseases specialist Prof Matteo Bassetti says Covid-19 has been losing its virulence.
- Coronavirus has downgraded from a “tiger to a wild cat” and could die out on its own without a vaccine, an infectious diseases specialist has claimed.
- Prof Matteo Bassetti, head of the infectious diseases clinic at the Policlinico San Martino hospital in Italy, told that Covid-19 has been losing its virulence in the last month.
- And patients who would have previously died are now recovering.
- His comments come after the Health Secretary announced on Thursday that a deal had been struck between pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and Oxford University to begin the manufacture of a potential vaccine.
A recently published article in the Telegraph has brought out the recent developments with regard to waning of corona virus.
Vaccine is no longer required
The expert in critical care said the plummeting number of cases could mean a vaccine is no longer needed as the virus might never return.
Professor Matteo Bassetti said he is convinced the virus is ‘changing in severity’ and patients are now surviving infections that would have killed them before.
It’s true virus is weakening
And if the virus’s weakening is true, Covid-19 could even disappear without a for a vaccine by becoming so weak it dies out on its own, he claimed.
He has said multiple times in recent months that patients with Covid-19 seem to be faring much better than they were at the start of the epidemic in Italy.
Professor Bassetti suggests this could be because of a genetic mutation in the virus making it less lethal, because of improved treatments, or because people are not getting infected with such large doses because of social distancing.
But other scientists have hit back at the claims in the past and said there is no scientific evidence that the virus has changed at all.
Virus could wither away on its own
Professor Bassetti, the chief of infectious diseases at San Martino General Hospital in Genoa, Italy, told The Sunday Telegraph the virus could wither away on its own.
He said: ”lt was like an aggressive tiger in March and April but now it’s like a wild cat. Even elderly patients, aged 80 or 90, are now sitting up n bed and they are breathing without help. The same patients would have died in two or three days before.”
Italy was one of the worst hit countries in the world during the pandemic’s early stages, and has now recorded more than 238,000 positive cases and 34,000 deaths.
Scientists have said the elderly population there, the virus spreading in rural areas and the suddenness of the outbreak contributed to the country’s high death toll.
Less damaging to people’s lungs
Professor Bassetti suggests that one of the reasons the virus might be causing less serious illness is a genetic mutation which has made it less damaging to people’s lungs.
Or, he said, people may simply be receiving smaller amounts when they get infected, because of social distancing and lockdown rules, making them less sick.
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Source: The Telegraph
