Freddie Sayers interviews Professor Karol Sikora, the Founding Dean and Professor of Medicine at the University of Buckingham Medical School and an ex-director of the WHO Cancer Programme. Read the full accompanying article here: https://unherd.com/thepost/professor-karol-sikora-fear-is-more-dangerous-than-the-virus/ Professor Karol Sikora has become something of a celebrity in the UK over the past months for his expert commentary on the pandemic, and his unusual tendency for optimism rather than pessimism. Virus ‘getting tired’ – In the past two weeks, the virus is showing signs of petering out – It’s as though the virus is ‘getting tired’, almost ‘getting bored’ – It’s happening across the world at the same time Existing herd immunity – The serology results around the world (and forthcoming in Britain) don’t necessarily reveal the percentage of people who have had the disease – He estimates 25-30% of the UK population has had Covid-19, and higher in the group that is most susceptible – Pockets of herd immunity help *already* explain the downturn – Sweden’s end result will not be different to ours – lockdown versus no lockdown Fear more deadly than the virus – When the history books are written, the fear will have killed many more people than the virus, including large numbers of cancer and cardiological patients not being treated – We should have got the machinery of the NHS for non-corona patients back open earlier Masks and schools – Evidence on masks is just not there either way so it should be an ‘individual decision’ – We should move to 1m social distancing which means restaurants and bars could reopen – More schools should reopen in June as ‘children are not the transmitters of this virus’ – We should be getting back to the ‘old normal’ not a ‘new normal’