COVID-19 pandemic will end soon, says Nobel laureate who predicted China’s trajectory

The worst might be already over for the world as it deals with the coronavirus pandemic, says Michael Levitt, a Nobel laureate and Stanford biophysicist. Levitt’s statement assumes significance as he correctly predicted the trajectory that the coronavirus would take in China. Subsequently, long before the world expected it, China is back up on its legs, with the most affected Hubei province all set to open up after more than two months of lockdown. Levitt notes that the number of new cases in countries like China and South Korea were consistently on a decline. At the same time, the scientist acknowledges that his figures are messy and that the official case counts in many areas are too low because testing is spotty. But even with incomplete data, “a consistent decline means there’s some factor at work that is not just noise in the numbers,” he notes. While his observation brings hope for millions of people across the world, Levitt emphasises on the significance of the ongoing mitigation efforts by countries. The social-distancing mandates are critical — particularly the ban on large gatherings — because the virus is so new that the population has no immunity to it, and a vaccine is still many months away. The recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2013 defies the doomsday predictions by various epidemiologists saying the data simply don’t support such a dire scenario—especially in areas where reasonable social distancing measures are in place. The unorganised sector, including labourers and those dependent on daily wages, will stand to be the most affected as the world stares at a COVID-19 induced economic recession.