This online calculator tells you how many people you could infect if you go outside

And it’s pretty accurate


In the last two weeks, the country has faced increasing degrees of restrictive measures from the government, culminating in a full lockdown on Monday evening. This is largely due to people not taking the earlier restrictive measures of social distancing seriously enough – photos emerged of groups galivanting around in parks, browsing the shops and packed tubes during a global pandemic.

Well, if people didn’t get enough of a kick up the arse from Boris’ stark warning, someone has made a calculator that works out just how many people you could potentially infect if you went to a gathering. It’s rather morbidly named howmanypeoplewillyoukill.com.

When you get to the website, you’re met with a number of criteria to fill in, such as where the gathering will happen, how many people will be there and the average age of attendees. When you click calculate, you’ll get an answer based upon the factors that you put in.

For example, if you hang out with just six people with an average age of 24 in London, the event will be indirectly responsible for the infection of 49.6 people with COVID-19 and the death of 0.5.

Think about it – a small meeting with six people could cause the infection of almost 50, and that’s just an average, with the actual number likely being larger. As the website says, “due to limited testing, asymptomatic cases and a lag between contracting the virus and test results, the true numbers of infected people are much higher.”

According to the website, the figure is calculated by collecting “the latest figures for confirmed cases for each country and region. The proportion of undetected cases is estimated by comparing the measured fatality rate with the fatality rate in countries with the best testing. Higher fatality rates in a country are assumed to imply limited testing and hence more hidden cases.”

So, as if you didn’t need any more reason to cancel on all of your plans, click here to see just how irresponsible meeting up with your mates could be.

And, as always, stay the fuck indoors.