On the afternoon of October 28, Gao Fu, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, gave a speech titled "COVID-19 Challenge and Opportunity for Global Public Health" at the 15th International Conference on

On the afternoon of October 28, Gao Fu, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, gave a speech titled "COVID-19 Challenge and Opportunity for Global" at the 15th International Conference on Genomics (ICG-15) held in Wuhan Public Health" ("COVID-19: Challenges and Opportunities for Global Public Health") keynote speech.

Picture: Gao Fu gave a speech at ICG-15. ——Photo by 21st Century Business Herald reporter

Gao Fu pointed out in his speech that the new coronavirus is both a challenge and an opportunity for human public health. After the epidemic broke out in Wuhan, the most critical issue was to first find the virus, analyze its sequence to see what virus it was, and how to isolate it.

Regarding the current epidemic situation, Gao Fu said: "Currently, there have been seven waves of epidemics in China, in order, Wuhan, Northeast China, Beijing, Urumqi, Dalian, Qingdao, and Kashgar. In China, due to each wave of epidemics They are well controlled, so each wave can be seen clearly and clearly. However, due to poor control of the epidemic in European and American countries, there is no obvious wave. Now it has entered the second wave, but in fact it is. The first wave is not over yet.”

Gao Fu mentioned at the meeting that the three most critical things to fight against the epidemic are: wearing a mask, keeping distance, and paying attention to personal hygiene, such as washing hands frequently.

01 responded to some doubts

In response to some doubts from the outside world, Gao Fu made a certain response to the Internet conspiracy theory attack of Event 201.

On October 18, 2019, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in the United States, in cooperation with the Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum, simulated a tabletop exercise of a global epidemic. The meeting simulated a coronavirus called CAPS. , more deadly than SARS and easier to spread than influenza . There is no vaccine available and it spread all over the world within 6 months. The exercise, called Event 201, invited 15 government, business and public health leaders to participate in an exercise on how to make decisions among different policy options during a pandemic.

Gao Fu said that this deduction is very close to the time of the new crown epidemic, and the development path is very consistent. At that time, the meeting also gave a number of suggestions on how to deal with possible epidemics, including that the government should strengthen the use of the capabilities of large companies, allocate resources to vaccine research and development, and make economic preparations to deal with the epidemic. Gao Fu mentioned that for people in the industry, the new coronavirus epidemic is a gray rhino event (referring to a potential crisis that is likely to occur with a high probability and has a huge impact). Unfortunately, although Event 201 predicted the future, it did not help in the fight against the epidemic. The gray rhinoceros incident in the eyes of professionals became a black swan incident in public life, and the unprepared public paid a huge price for it.

Gao Fu emphasized that since the new coronavirus exists very widely in nature and recombines commonly, the urgent step is to establish a monitoring network. "There is COVID-19 today, and I can tell you responsibly that there will be COVID-29 and COVID-39 in the future. Just like influenza viruses, these viruses are already very close to humans."

said on the second day of the meeting (10 In a speech on March 27), researcher Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology pointed out very carefully that bats are the natural host of SARS-CoV-2 (new coronavirus), but the transmission route and intermediate host need further study.

Regarding this, Gao Fu said in his speech: "At first we all suspected that it came from animals, but 10 months have passed and no animal host of the new coronavirus has been found."

Gao Fu said that his team Together with Shi Zhengli’s team, we discovered that ACE2 is the receptor for SARS-CoV-2 (new coronavirus). The article was published in the journal Cell and should have its own name. At that time, some people in the domestic public opinion questioned his improper epidemic prevention, but he responded very quickly to publishing the article. When the article was finally published, it did not have his signature.

"But everyone knows that this is (the work done by) our team, proving that its (new coronavirus) receptor, like the SARS virus, is ACE2." Gao Fu added.

02 A series of vaccine issues to be solved

Currently, the most critical issue for the new coronavirus epidemic is the vaccine. At the end of July, Gao Fu said that he had been injected with a new coronavirus vaccine.

In his speech, Gao Fu said: "Currently, four vaccines in our country have entered clinical phase III trials, including two inactivated vaccines developed by China Biotech, an inactivated vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech and CanSino An adenovirus vaccine jointly developed with the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, and the Chinese Center for Disease Control has participated in two inactivated vaccines, namely China Biotech and Sinovac Biotech.”

He said: “Everyone knows that China’s inactivated vaccines are now available. This is because fire-fighting vaccines require P3-level laboratories, which foreign companies do not have. In China, the Chinese Center for Disease Control lent two P3 laboratories to China National Biotech and Sinovac Biotech, and the cooperation started in early February. It has already started. The Wuhan Institute of Virology has lent their P3 laboratory to the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, so China is ahead of the curve in terms of inactivated vaccines that are undergoing phase III clinical trials in the Middle East. Gao Fu said he expected to be able to unblind the patient in the middle of next month. By then everyone will know how effective the new coronavirus inactivated vaccine is.

Many industry insiders have previously pointed out to 21st Century Business Herald reporters that among the several current vaccine lines, the fire-extinguishing vaccine has the greatest hope. As multiple COVID-19 vaccines enter the Phase III clinical stage, some opinions point out that the ADE effect may be a potential risk of COVID-19 vaccines.

ADE effect, namely "Antibody-dependent Enhancement". It means that after specific antibodies of certain viruses bind to the virus, they instead introduce the virus into cells, causing more serious infections.

In response to this, Gao Fu believes that whether the new crown vaccine has an ADE effect and whether the ADE effect will affect the use of the vaccine still needs to wait until the Phase III clinical results are released before making a judgment. Can

have a protective effect if it has neutralizing antibodies? What is the neutralizing antibody titer required for protection? Gao Fu said he didn’t know any of this. If there are neutralizing antibodies, how long can they last in the body? Are there ADEs (antibody dependent effects)? "It's not clear. In short, a series of questions cannot be answered yet." Gao Fu said, "Before the vaccine is mature, it will be reserved for the front line and people who need it to maintain daily life."

Now winter is coming, The flu will also follow, is pneumonia possible again? "Our challenge is huge," Gao Fu said.

Gao Fu said that viruses can survive for a long time in dark and humid environments, and it cannot be ruled out that some early viruses in Wuhan are still hiding in dark and humid environments. Gao Fu warned that we will face more severe tests. Especially this winter, whether it is the flu or the new coronavirus that may be mixed in, it will cause fever.

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Editor: Li Wu