Britain | Business as flusual

What if the flu were treated more like covid, not the other way round?

A post-pandemic thought experiment

Three volunteers are infected with the common cold virus for research purposes at the Harvard Hospital in Wiltshire, 28th December 1955. From left to right, they are student Brenda Jeanes, German tourist Anne Weddig and civil servant Pat Brown. (Photo by FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The covid-19 pandemic rumbles on. In the week ending May 21st, one in 60 adults in Britain were estimated to be infected; 16,504 people have died with the virus since February 23rd, which was when England’s restrictive measures ended. But only a new, more harmful variant would prompt a return to the rules of the past.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Business as flusual”

A new era

From the June 4th 2022 edition

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