A note from the editor

摘要

Dear reader, On 7 January, New Scientist reported for the first time on a mystery disease in Wuhan, China. On 1 February, the virus responsible appeared on our front cover for the first time. "How bad is it likely to get?" we asked. The answer, of course, turned out to be very bad. As New Scientist went to press this week, confirmed global cases of covid-19 stood at 4,834,449, with 319,031 official deaths - and that is with much of the world in lockdown, our skies almost empty of planes. As lockdown measures start to lift, there will be resurgences of the disease (see page 8). No one should bet on anything like the old normal for a long while to come. In today's magazine, we have a feature (see page 41) that offers a small note of hope, however: a detailed look at why viruses tend to become less lethal. So even though a vaccine and treatments for covid-19 may be far off, and indeed cannot be relied on as a way out of this, time is on our side - at least in the long term.