Answering questions about COVID-19

Posted on June 24, 2020   by Dr Lucy Thorne

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought awareness of virology into the public eye in a way that has never been done before. The discussion of virology in the media isn’t going away anytime soon, and as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic continues to be discussed in greater and more complex detail on the news, microbiologists are fielding increasingly complex questions from friends and family. Dr Lucy Thorne, Research Fellow at University College London (UCL) has produced a helpful FAQ’s list to support those who want to better understand some of the terms used by politicians and in the media, what SARS-CoV-2 is, and the measures being developed to control the pandemic.

iStock/Professor25
iStock/Professor25

Download the PDF below to see answers from Dr Lucy Thorne, Professor Greg Towers, Professor Richard Milne and Dr Lorena Zuliani-Alvarez to questions including:

  • What is a safe social distance? 1 metre or 2 metres?
  • What is the 'R number' and why does the government care so much about it? 
  • Is SARS-CoV-2 mutating to become more deadly? 
  • Will there be a second wave and how do we emerge from lockdown without a vaccine? 
Answering questions about COVID-19

 

Categories:

Microbiology News Our Members