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Adolfo García Sastre, Spanish researcher, also explains how the vaccine is going and what the world should prepare for.
This is the interview of the director of the Institute of Global Health and Emerging Pathogens of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York with Dr. Fernanda Hernández.
What has surprised you most about the new coronavirus?
Adolfo García Sastre: “Perhaps it has been the speed with which everything has been developing and the lack of preparation that there was at the world level to be able, quickly, to start tackling it. We already knew from the SARS example that this could occur and influenza viruses are also known to cause pandemics. Sooner or later there will be, after this, a pandemic with a flu virus.
What is the vaccine about?
AGS: We have not started animal testing yet. We have two candidates that we are going to start testing soon. There are vaccines (in other laboratories) that are more advanced, that are in clinical trials, so that as soon as possible it is possible to know if a vaccine works or not. Unfortunately, clinical trials take a long time to confirm whether a vaccine is good.
Vaccine production
AGS: That is something that has to be discussed now among the leaders of the countries where these vaccines are entering clinical trials in order to know how this will be done and not wait until there is a vaccine, in a year and a half, and say in that moment ‘how are we going to distribute it’.
How long could this pandemic last?
AGS: This virus behaves in a matter of contagion, in a matter of speed of contagion, similar to how a pandemic influenza virus behaves. And with previous flu pandemics, they have typically lasted from a year to a year and a half in three waves, one smaller than the other.
It is not a matter of panicking, most people will survive the infection. If you are in a risk group, you have to be very careful.
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