QUEEN's BRIAN MAY: 'Why We Must Take Extreme Measures Now' To Slow Coronavirus

QUEEN guitarist Brian May has urged the public to take seriously the threat of coronavirus and change behaviors to slow its spread.

On Monday (March 16),May took to his Instagram to share a Medium.com article warning about the risk of inaction in response to the pandemic, and he included the following message:

"I feel this might be THE MOST IMPORTANT THING I EVER POSTED.

"There is so much false information out there - people saying the CoronaVirus is not a threat - even that it doesn't exist. And our own Government has failed to act promptly, acting on catastrophically bad advice, which will eventually be the cause of thousands of deaths.

"It's too late to contain the CoronaVirus in Britain - but we CAN still save some of the lives of our dear ones by doing NOW what we should have done 3 weeks ago.

"ISOLATE - minimise our social contacts. Minimise them, if possible, to almost zero. The more interactions you have, the more chance you have of bringing the virus in to threaten your family. The less people you meet up with, the better the chance of saving yourself and your family, and the greater chance we will have to limit the damage this awful plague will do.

"PLEASE READ the article these screen shots come from. It will take you 30 minutes or so to absorb it - but at the end you will truly understand why we must take extreme measures NOW. Do not confuse this with panicking. It is simply taking the measures we need to adopt to protect ourselves from a Hellish future.

"THE LINK IS IN MY BIO. Do it, please - and forward it to all your friends and family. This could save countless lives.

"My God - I am praying that [U.K. Prime Minister] Boris [Johnson] will read it - and throw his advisors out the door. Extreme Action is needed - delaying is shite. And please, politicians, stop talking about the economy, just for a moment. A million lives are at stake. Bri"

There is no known cure yet for the flu-like virus, which originated in China.

Officials have made it clear that the elderly — especially those with heart, lung and immunological conditions — are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus, with at least 25 deaths linked to one nursing home in Washington.

In Italy, which has one of the oldest populations in the world, one hundred percent of the people who have died have been over 60, and the vast majority over 80.

According to the Centers For Disease Control And Protection (CDC),coronavirus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person — between people who are in close contact with one another (within about six feet),and through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs.