It would be wonderful to think there is a short-cut to escape this infernal lockdown, but clutching at straws is not a public health policy

At first glance, Stanford University’s study of Covid-19 antibodies is the magic bullet that political leaders and global markets have been praying for.

It suggests that fifty to eighty-five times more people in California’s Santa Clara County have been infected with the virus than officially confirmed.

Ergo, the case death rate in this sample region is lower than feared by orders of magnitude - indeed, no worse than a bad flu season. It means the world is by now well along the path to herd immunity.

The study implies that global lockdowns are grotesquely disproportionate to the actual threat, that the measures may be doing more harm than good even in terms of health, and that we can safely return to normal life within weeks.

It has generated gasps of excitement and is now a factor driving Wall Street’s torrid rebound, along with hopes of salvation from Gilead’s antiviral drug, and other apparent Godsends. It has been seized upon by advocates in the US, the UK, and Europe to push for an early restoration of our civil liberties.