Describing SARS-CoV-2 as a “monster” virus is pretty far from describing it as a “doomsday” virus. Doomsday is typically understood to mean the destruction of a

Describing SARS-CoV-2 as a “monster” virus is pretty far from describing it as a “doomsday” virus. Doomsday is typically understood to mean the destruction of all life, or in some contexts merely the end of human civilisation. No serious person has suggested that SARS-CoV-2 has the capacity to end civilisation (although it could plausibly be thought to increase the chance that civilisation will end in this century). Yes, there has been hyperbole and a great deal of FUD, but there is also a real health crisis taking place. I agree that some of the science communication needs to improve dramatically, and that we should be thinking critically about the papers that are published (or merely circulated, as is the current fashion). What I haven’t seen yet is someone dismantle the current policies and the modelling they are based on in a systematic way-probably because of the lack of data and the absence of a control population anywhere on the planet. Perhaps the latter will be overcome with some innovative experiment or observation; the former will come in time.