Dr. Siegel: Too much COVID-19 mathematical modeling spreading panic
Dr. Marc Siegel discusses if coronavirus growth has slowed and if travel restrictions have decreased the spread of the illness
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After Nobel Peace Prize-winning scientist Michael Levitt claimed that coronavirus panic needs to be controlled, Fox News medical correspondent Dr. Marc Siegel agreed.
“There is too much mathematical modeling going on,” Siegel told “Fox & Friends.”
Siegel said that projections from Johns Hopkins University and other institutions are based on “numbers they don’t really know.”
“[Levitt] is looking at China and saying ‘wait, a minute, there was a slow down here. There was a control that went on here whether it was because the virus didn’t sustain it’s spread or because public measures worked.' Both are optimistic ideas and we might see the same thing here [in the United States].”
Siegel reacted to Levitt's projection of an earlier turning point in the fight against coronavirus. The Nobel laureate correctly calculated that China would get through the worst part of its outbreak faster than other health experts believed.
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The Stanford University biology professor believes that a similar outcome is possible in the U.S. and other parts of the world.
“What we need is to control the panic,” Levitt told The Los Angeles Times, while agreeing with strong measures to battle the outbreak, including social distancing mandates. In the grand scheme, he said, “we’re going to be fine.”
This view stands in stark contrast with other public health officials who have said that we may be weeks or even months away from having the COVID-19 pandemic fully under control.
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Siegel said that vigilance, social distancing, preparation, and possibly the shift into warmer months, could lessen the number of coronavirus cases.
“I wouldn’t assume that’s true, but it’s certainly something we should be thinking about,” Siegel said.
Fox News' Christopher Carbone contributed to this report.
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