LONDON: Will most people catch the coronavirus and can drastic measures to contain its spread only serve to aggravate the looming public health crisis?
The United Kingdom at least believes so.
Despite British Prime Minister Boris Johnson describing the worldwide pandemic as "the worst public health crisis for a generation" and warning that "many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time", his government is adopting a light-touch approach to combat the virus' spread.
No clampdowns on large public gatherings. No suspension of transit networks. No bans on schools even.
On Friday, more than 60,000 horse-racing fans packed a course in England for the grand finale of the Cheltenham Festival, one of the few sporting events in Europe still taking place.
This at a time when the UK had 798 confirmed cases - almost 10 times the number India had on March 13. On Friday alone, there were 200 new cases. There have also been 10 deaths.
It gets even more stark.
Patrick Vallance, the British government's chief scientific adviser, in fact said the UK was only "about four weeks or so behind Italy", the worst-hit country outside of China where more than 15,000 infections and more than 1,000 deaths have been recorded in only three weeks.
But Vallance remains the lead proponent and defender of this go-easy method to tackle the disease.
In the UK, people with mild symptoms are being asked not even to visit or call a doctor unless their condition worsens, to allow medical staff to focus on those most in need.
All that is suggested in such situations is self-quarantine.
"We want to suppress it (the virus), not get rid of it completely," Vallance explained.
He added: "What we don't want is everybody to end up getting it in a short period of time so we swamp and overwhelm NHS services."
Vallance and his team also believe that the population could develop some immunity to the virus if it is allowed to spread slowly.
"You can't stop it, so you should end up with a broader peak during which time you'd anticipate that more people would get immunity to this," he said.
"That in itself becomes a protective part of this process. This is quite likely, I think, to become an annual virus, an annual seasonal infection."
The approach is not without its risks. Vallance suggests this kind of immunity will only work if 60 per cent of the population were infected - potentially risking many more deaths.
To some anxious Britons that sounds utterly callous.
The front pages of most British newspapers carried stark summaries Friday of Johnson's warning the day before: "Many loved ones will die," was the Daily Mail's headline.
Scientists say a pandemic like the current one brings with it difficult choices and tough judgment calls.
Thomas House, a reader in mathematical statistics at the University of Manchester, said that "whether we aim for it or not, herd immunity will happen at some point in the future" once the new virus has run its course.
"The aim of policy should be for this to happen with the minimum human cost possible," he said.
The editor-in-chief of The Lancet medical journal, Richard Horton, pulled no punches. He accused London of "complacency" and demanded "assertive social distancing and closure policies".
Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health at Edinburgh University, too was categorical: "Now is the time for the UK government to ban large gatherings, ask people to stop non-essential travel, recommend employers shift to home working and ramp up the response.
"The curve can be shifted, like South Korea and Singapore, but only with government action," she insisted.
Vallance and the defenders and framers of the policy, though, believe that enforcing social distancing too soon could also counterproductive for another reason - because people will tire of the restrictions and start to lapse just when the measures are needed most.
Whatever the government's advice, the virus has already had a major impact in Britain.
The English Premier League canceled matches until April 3. Some universities are moving classes online. Rush-hour seats on the London Underground are proving more easy to get as an increasing number of people are working from home.
And hotels, shops and restaurants, of course, have taken a hit as tourists have cancelled their trips.
(With Associated Press and AFP inputs)