“The infection of viruses has a natural pattern, and it is necessary to understand it correctly. Historically, the epidemic caused by coronavirus has fluctuated and will not always be in an outbreak state or continue to be at the peak.” At the scientific lecture, Jin Dongyan, a professor at the School of Biomedicine at the Li Ka Shing School of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong and an academician of the American Academy of Microbiology, introduced the “previous life and present life” of coronavirus. The length of this period may be determined by the country or region with the worst outbreak control. ”
Jin Dongyan introduced that, including the COVID-19 virus, there are already 7 human coronaviruses. Among them, there are four kinds of coronaviruses (229E, OC43, NL63 and HKU1) that have been very well adapted in humans, and can be spread in the crowd without the need for an intermediate host of animals, generally causing only the common cold. The SARS that emerged in 2003 and the MERS in 2912 required animals as intermediate hosts, which are more pathogenic and have a higher lethal rate, but human-to-human transmission cannot be sustained and can be effectively controlled by isolation.
“The COVID-19 virus is somewhere in between. It is very similar to SARS, but it is more infectious and less pathogenic, but it is still more pathogenic than other human coronaviruses.” Jin Dongyan said.
In the lecture, Jin Dongyan analyzed the current research and development of vaccines and drugs and the mechanism of action. In his view, the various vaccines currently under development have their own characteristics and their own advantages and disadvantages, but in the “current situation, every vaccine is worth trying, and we will use the one that succeeds, even if the vaccine is successful. Not ideal, but as long as it is safe and has a good immune effect, it can still be used. ”
Jin Dongyan said that in the process of combating the COVID-19 virus, Chinese scientists have made a lot of contributions, “For example, we announced the discovery of a new virus on December 30, 2019, determined the nucleic acid sequence on January 12, and then quickly shared it with the world Data. Of course, there are also shortcomings. Before January 20, we did not have a good grasp of the prevalence of the virus. This is worth summing up in the future. In general, we have done better. “