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At the time, very little was known about the disease itself and the virus that caused it, but the scientist warned of the dangers of emerging coronaviruses, citing SARS, MERS and other viruses as significant examples.
Since then, we continue to learn a lot about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 on a daily basis, discovering new ways to manage a pandemic and protect ourselves for the future.
On what we have learned since last January and what we still need to learn and learn, writes sciencealert.com.
Learned lessons
The disease, now called COVID-19, was originally described as pneumonia that affects the elderly. However, we now know that SARS-CoV-2 infection can have a wide range of symptoms and cause these symptoms in people of any age. The condition of an infected person can range from the complete absence of symptoms to widespread inflammation and death.
In addition, it has been shown that there may be prolonged symptoms that do not give rest to many, the so-called ‘long COVID’. We are also beginning to distinguish between the different stages of the disease, to elucidate the role that organs (such as the heart and brain) play in green and the role of co-infection with bacterial and viral infections.
In January 2020, there was very little information about how people spread the virus to each other. SARS-CoV-2 was thought to be similar to its cousin virus SARS-CoV-1, which causes SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), so it was thought that the virus would begin to spread at a fairly late stage when symptoms will peak.
However, early studies have shown that the spread of SARS-CoV-2 between humans is very efficient and rapid, and can occur before the onset of the most serious symptoms of the disease. Following these findings, it became clear that the pandemic could not be controlled without a highly sensitive and virus-specific test, leading to the introduction of prominent PCR tests.
It has become clear that remote maintenance, hygiene and proper masks, as well as isolation and quarantine, help limit the spread of the virus.
Initially, there was no treatment or vaccine for COVID-19 other than hospital care, such as oxygenation of patients who had difficulty breathing or antibiotics if they had a secondary bacterial infection.
Over time, researchers began rapidly testing new treatments for COVID-19 and discovered that dexamethasone could be given. In addition, several safe and highly effective COVID-19 vaccines have been developed and are currently being vaccinated.
Questions for the future
Although we learn something about COVID-19 on a daily basis, some important scientific questions remain that determine the future of SARS-CoV-2 and all of humanity. The first question is: how will SARS-CoV-2 evolve, adapt and change in the coming years against natural or vaccinated immunity?
The second issue, less academic, refers to its importance. Treatment and public health measures will continue to be effective, but can we say the same for vaccines?
The evolution of SARS-CoV-2 continues to be monitored, analyzed, and predicted with respect to the probability of “extinction” of the vaccine. However, all available information indicates that this is minimal and that the existing vaccine platforms are robust enough to withstand any change if necessary.
Of course, there is no need to lose vigilance, given the potential for SARS-CoV-2 to establish itself in other species, such as tissues.
There is also the question of how SARS-CoV-2 will interact with other viruses that can infect humans. Often, several viruses that live in the respiratory tract of the same person circulate together at the same time.
These viruses facilitate or prevent infection by other viruses. We now know that due to social distance, the spread of most respiratory viruses (such as influenza or respiratory syncytial virus) has become very limited.
And how will these viruses “react” when restrictive measures such as distance are no longer applied?
Finally, we need to identify the origin of SARS-CoV-2 to prevent the continued spread of SARS-CoV-2-like viruses (or other pathogens) between humans.
We know that SARS-CoV-2 likely originated recently in Southeast Asia and eventually infected the little horseshoe bat. However, the biological and ecological steps required for the virus to reach humans remain unclear.
Solving this puzzle would help protect our health for decades to come. Similarly, the puzzle was solved in cases of swine and bird flu.
As Bamford noted in his article a year ago, these epidemics “are a constant reminder of the need to invest in emerging research on viral biology and evolution and, ultimately, find safe and effective drugs for serious diseases or vaccines that help prevent them. “.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that science and researchers can and will continue to deliver, provided they have adequate public and financial support. And how, then, will we apply the lessons learned from COVID-19 to other serious problems, such as emerging new infections, antimicrobial resistance, and climate change?
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