An Italian infectious disease expert has said coronavirus is far less deadly than it was a few months ago.
Professor Matteo Bassetti told the Sunday Telegraph the virus is weakening on it own as it was like an “aggressive Tiger” and is now a “wild cat.”
Professor Bassetti said, “It 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 in bed and they are breathing without help.
“The same patients would have died in two or three days before.
“The clinical impression I have is that the virus is changing in severity. In March and early April, the patterns were completely different.
“People were coming to the emergency department with a very difficult to manage illness and they needed oxygen and ventilation, some developed pneumonia.
“Now, in the past four weeks, the picture has completely changed in terms of of patterns.”
Professor Bassetti, an infectious diseases specialist at the San Martino General Hospital in Italy, added, “There could be a lower viral load in the respiratory tract, probably due to a genetic mutation in the virus which has not yet been demonstrated scientifically.”
He even said the virus could die out without the need for a vaccine, but other Professors have hit out at his claims for giving people a false sense of security.
Dr Oscar MacLean of the University of Glasgow said, “These claims are not supported by anything in the scientific literature, and also seem fairly implausible on genetic grounds…
“Making these claims on the basis of anecdotal observations from swab tests is dangerous.
“Whilst weakening of the virus through mutations is theoretically possible, it is not something we should expect, and any claims of this nature would need to be verified in a more systematic way.
“Without significantly stronger evidence, no one should unnecessarily downplay the danger this highly virulent virus poses and risk the ongoing society-wide response.”
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