Yesterday, after the results of the centralized nucleic acid test screening in Wuhan City were released, "Wuhan is safe, Wuhan people are healthy" flooded the circle of friends. At 5 pm yesterday, Chen Xiaoping , Chen Xiaoping , an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Department of Surgery at Tongji Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from Chutian Metropolis Daily on hot topics such as the results of concentrated nucleic acid testing in Wuhan. He said that judging from the current situation, Wuhan City is very safe and you can consider taking off your mask.
investigation results are consistent with the actual situation
Reporter: What do you think of the results of centralized nucleic acid testing investigation in Wuhan?
Academician Chen Xiaoping: I have inspected several nucleic acid testing sites with the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission. The situation I learned is consistent with the data at the press conference.
I believe that the decision to centralize nucleic acid testing represents the government's determination to defeat the epidemic. It is not easy to make this decision, it involves many aspects of people, money and property. On the one hand, the number of people tested is nearly 10 million is a huge number, and no country has done so yet. A lot of manpower and capital need to be invested. On the other hand, national nucleic acid testing also demonstrates China's speed from another perspective. Within two weeks, if you want to check such a large group, just collect samples, you have to collect 800,000 to 1 million samples every day. This number is very amazing. It is not possible to rely on Wuhan alone. If you don’t devote the whole country to the effort, it will be difficult to do so.
factors have contributed to a good situation today
Reporter: On May 31, Wuhan City conducted nucleic acid tests on more than 60,000 people, and no asymptomatic infections were found. There is a conclusion that this shows that Wuhan’s centralized nucleic acid testing and investigation work has produced significant results. Do you agree?
Academician Chen Xiaoping: Centralized nucleic acid testing, people who are asymptomatic should be isolated. Regardless of whether asymptomatic or not, they are virus carriers. Through isolation intervention, the possibility of them becoming symptomatic and then spreading in society is eliminated. In addition, the number of asymptomatic infections carried by the virus tested is getting fewer and fewer than day by day. The results of this concentrated nucleic acid test are very satisfactory. I agree with the conclusion of
. However, I want to add that this good result has three aspects in a comprehensive role. First, our measures including centralized nucleic acid testing have taken effect; second, clinical observations at this stage have found that the pathogenicity of the new coronavirus is declining. This may be because the virus is related to the coexistence of humans, and it is also changing, adapting to the environment of human growth, and its pathogenicity is weakened; third, the new coronavirus has a certain seasonality, with more winter and spring, so high temperatures are not suitable for it. After summer, the temperature will get higher and higher, and it is difficult for it to survive.
nucleic acid screening results have great scientific research significance
Reporter: Is centralized nucleic acid testing meaningful for our scientific research?
Academician Chen Xiaoping: That must make sense. The centralized nucleic acid testing data has been released, which at least allows us to find out the proportion of asymptomatic infections in this society. If we don’t do this check, there is no data, and everyone is guessing, which can easily cause panic. If you have this data, you can feel at ease. You see, there are very few asymptomatic infections.
Scientific research needs to use data to speak. This centralized nucleic acid test is a very large survey of epidemic samples. This data can tell us at least two things: one is the proportion of asymptomatic infections in the tens of millions of people, and the other is the proportion of these asymptomatic people developing into symptomatic people. These two data are only available in Wuhan and are not available in other parts of the world. This contains a very large scientific space, and its important scientific research significance is here.
Necessary precautions can be taken off after the mask is taken.
Reporter: After the results of the centralized nucleic acid test in Wuhan City are released, do you think Wuhan is safe now? If it is safe, can our lifestyle change a little, such as reducing the time for wearing a mask?
Academician Chen Xiaoping: Wuhan is very, very safe at present. You may have a fearful mentality. I personally think that it is necessary to prevent the masks from being taken off. The medical order can also be considered to return to normal and enter a normal medical state. Nucleic acid testing in such a large group of
undoubtedly tells us that the risk is very low, about 0:00.Many asymptomatic infected people do not show symptoms after a long period of isolation and observation, which is also very telling. In addition, from the current development of the epidemic in my country, it can be seen that for a long time, few people have been born and grown in the country, all imported from abroad, and there are almost no new cases among our own local residents.
However, even if you take off your mask, it doesn’t mean you can be completely unprepared. We should go to places with crowds as little as possible to gather, and we should protect our personal hygiene and develop good living habits, such as washing hands frequently, maintaining a safe distance and socializing.
The key to the later epidemic prevention lies in popular science education
Reporter: At present, the epidemic has not passed. How do you think we can adjust epidemic prevention measures in the later stage?
Academician Chen Xiaoping: I think we should pay attention to popular medical science education at present. Infectious diseases and epidemics are often seasonal, such as preventing respiratory infectious diseases in winter and spring ( influenza , new coronary pneumonia), and preventing digestive infectious diseases in summer and autumn ( bacterial dysentery , cholera ). Tell the citizens not to join in the crowd, small family gatherings, everyone develops a good living habit, keeps a certain distance, and eats separately. Pay attention to hand hygiene, wash your hands before and after meals. When you go to some places that you think are risky, wearing a mask is not a must, and you don’t have to have an N95 mask, just an ordinary mask is enough. However, when symptoms of new coronary pneumonia appear, they should be reported in a timely manner.
prevention and control departments must pay attention to the monitoring of outsiders, especially those from high-risk areas. The temperature measurement in and out should be maintained, and the itinerary should be traced. If necessary, the inspection method should be upgraded and strict inspections should be carried out.
