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Original title: Zhong Nanshan: Anti-epidemic this winter and next spring, prevention and control is the key, vaccination is the way
Source: Science and Technology Daily
“The new corona epidemic should continue to exist this winter or next spring, and local outbreaks are very likely to occur.” 18th of September,ZhongguancunZhong Nanshan, a scholar at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said this in a video specially recorded for the conference at the Global Science, Life and Health Forum.
Zhong Nanshan said that infection control is the key to preventing and controlling the epidemic this winter and next spring. After an epidemic is detected in a local area, measures such as community-level joint prevention and control, community-wide nucleic acid detection, close contact tracing, and isolation of asymptomatic nucleic acid positive infections, etc. . The facts have shown that these methods are also effective. In particular, beware of asymptomatic infections, which are most contagious 5 days before and after the onset of symptoms and have a high viral load.
At present, the new corona epidemic is still spreading around the world, according to statistics, there are more than 29.9 million confirmed cases worldwide and more than 900,000 deaths. Experts at the meeting said that in the face of global public health incidents, no country can be alone. Only by joining forces and strengthening cooperation can the epidemic be controlled.
Vaccines are the fundamental solution to the epidemic
“Vaccines are the fundamental solution to the epidemic.” Zhong Nanshan said that in the past there was the idea of immunizing the population naturally, but the price was too high and many people died around the world. The final formation of herd immunity depends on vaccines to ensure the safety of the vast majority of people.
Zhong Nanshan said that looking back at China’s epidemic prevention and control war, early prevention and control are very important. Taking as an example the new outbreak in Beijing in early June, the research model of Lanzhou University shows that if the level of public emergency response is raised from Level 3 to Level 2, the number of patients will be significantly reduced, approximately half; if there are no prevention and control measures, it is expected that there will be 200,000 infected people; however, due to strict measures, only more than 330 patients were finally affected and they were fully controlled within 14 days.
“The epidemic continues. This is a great challenge for many countries. Vaccines have therefore become more important. In particular, the cooperation of countries around the world is needed. Large-scale vaccination takes between 1 and 2 years, “Zhong Nanshan said. .
In fact, vaccines are one of the most important scientific weapons for the prevention and control of epidemics. Currently, there are 182 candidate vaccines worldwide struggling to address key problems, 32 of which are in clinical trials and 9 vaccines are in phase III clinical studies. “Until now, there is no pathogen or vaccine like the new crown that can make the world work together in this way,” said Chen Wei, an academic at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a researcher at the Academy of Military Sciences, and a “people’s hero. “.
Viral mutations have minimal impact on vaccines
Speaking of vaccines, Chen Wei has an absolute voice. The adenovirus vector vaccine developed by him won the first new vaccine patent from China’s crown and is currently in phase III clinical trials.
Regarding the question of whether mutations in the virus will affect the effect of the vaccine, Chen Wei said that his team has been conducting an evolutionary analysis of the genome sequence of the new global coronavirus. As of September 2020, more than 100,000 new coronavirus sequences have been uploaded to public databases, of which around 60,000 high-quality full-genome sequences have been sampled from more than 105 countries and regions on 6 continents. The target gene for the recombinant vaccine is the new coronavirus S gene, with a total length of almost 1,300 amino acids. This gene only has a relatively stable point mutation at amino acid position S614. This point mutation is relatively close to the receptor-binding domain (RBD). It has a limited impact on antigenicity.
On September 16, the research results published by the academic Chen Saijuan’s team also showed that the plasma of survivors infected with the non-mutated virus had a neutralizing activity similar to that of the mutant virus. “In other words, the impact of this mutation point in the vaccine is very small, minimal,” Chen Wei said.
“Different vaccines have different advantages and disadvantages, and everyone should look at the news about vaccine research and development objectively,” Chen Wei said. Previously, a subject on the vaccine had a fever problem. Chen Wei said that this was the normal immune response of the vaccine and that these symptoms resolved on their own within 48 hours. Clinical trials are like test flights on airplanes, the problems are not terrible, only then can we know where the problems are and how to address them when applied on a large scale.
“Vaccine research and development still has a long way to go. I hope that the media can be more scientific and cautious when reporting on vaccines, so that vaccine research and development have a better environment of opinion. public, “Chen Wei said. He said it had never been like this. Many scientists around the world are doing the same. Scientists are doing their best. Only a good environment can promote global vaccine research and development work to truly advance and control the epidemic.
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