How coronavirus can be stopped in eight weeks

As America becomes the centre of the pandemic and health services around the world face disaster, former WHO chief Anthony Costello tells Nafeez Ahmed it’s not too late to regain control of the situation

Workers begin a third day of cleaning at the Life Care Centre of Kirkland, a care facility near Seattle, which became one of the deadliest coronavirus outbreak zones in the US (Reuters)

We know we can get this under control,” says Dr Anthony Costello, a former director at the World Health Organisation (WHO) where he headed up maternal, child and adolescent health. “The problem is that Europe has been too slow to act compared with Asia; and America is now facing a huge crisis.”

Costello, who is professor of global health at University College London, where he also previously headed up the UCL Institute for Global Health, spoke to me via telephone from Yorkshire, where he is currently isolating from his family, many of whom are experiencing symptoms of the novel coronavirus.