TY - JOUR T1 - Highlights from this issue JF - Thorax JO - Thorax SP - 613 LP - 613 DO - 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-215621 VL - 75 IS - 8 AU - The Triumvirate Y1 - 2020/08/01 UR - http://thorax.bmj.com/content/75/8/613.abstract N2 - Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, UK politicians have claimed to “follow the science” – in some cases all the way from Durham to Barnard Castle… In this issue of Thorax the Triumvirate bring you the best science and follow it to some unexpected places: all the way from Manchester (community-based spirometry data) (see page 655) to the Antarctic (in the footsteps of Ernest Shackleton) (see page 693).One of the important, unanswered questions of the COVID-19 pandemic is: “How many people have had asymptomatic infection?” If past infection does confer some immunity, then a high rate of “silent” infection would mean higher levels of immunity in the population. This in turn might allow a more rapid relaxation of lockdown and a faster economic recovery. In this month’s journal, Ing and colleagues describe a natural experiment on an Antarctic cruise ship (see page 693). The ship set sail after the pandemic was declared and had no contact with the outside world until it arrived in Uruguay 3 weeks later, with suspected cases on board. Health officials in Uruguay tested all 217 individuals on board and 128 were positive for COVID-19. Of those 104 (81%) were asymptomatic. In a linked editorial, Keeley and … ER -