Although the authors used the model in the USA and UK context, decision makers and healthcare providers in many parts of the world were tempted to extrapolate the results in their own context. The hypothesis that the mitigation model with the herd immunity it implies is already de facto existing (with relatively limited and late interventions of social distancing deployed if any) is even more tempting. This is particularly the case in developing countries were fragile healthcare systems are already overwhelmed. This would, for example, explain the still limited numbers of diagnosed cases in most developing countries. This assumption can even be boosted by observations of increased and unexplained surge of upper and lower respiratory tract infections which are poorly documented, and which is claimed to have occurred in previous months. Collectively this would argue for the development of a kind of a herd immunity described with the mitigation model of Ferguson et al. which in turn means that the peak of the crisis is already historical. Of course, such “wishful thinking” ignores the relatively limited numbers of testing for COVID-19 in such countries as well as morbidities and mortalities which pass unnoticed by the formal healthcare system in the respective country. This is not intended to undermine such a hypothesis but to alert to the need to fill knowledge gaps by facts and solid data.