Source: [Life Times] Interviewed experts: Director of the Disease Prevention and Control Department of the Army Special Medical Center Liu Ding Global Times Health Client Reporter Zhang Xiaoyue Although the COVID-19 outbreak has been happening for more than two years, its impact

Source: [Life Times]

Interviewed experts: Director of the Disease Prevention and Control Department of the Army Specialty Medical Center Liu Ding

Global Times Health Client Reporter Zhang Xiaoyue

Although the COVID-19 outbreak has been happening for more than two years, its impact cannot be underestimated worldwide. According to the latest data from the World Health Organization, as of yesterday, the global cumulative number of confirmed cases of new crown exceeded 600 million and deaths exceeded 6.48 million.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference on September 7 local time that one person died of the new crown every 44 seconds last week, and most of these deaths could be avoided. He also noted that while the number of reported confirmed cases and deaths worldwide continues to decline, there is no guarantee that these trends will continue. On the same day, the United States also announced that it would widely vaccinate the people with additional COVID-19 vaccines. Fauci, chief medical adviser at the White House, said that the COVID-19 vaccine may need to be vaccinated once a year in the future, just like getting a flu vaccine, because once new mutant strains appear, the protection provided by the existing vaccine will fail.

Liu Ding, director of the Disease Prevention and Control Department of the Army Special Medical Center, told the Global Times Health Client that COVID-19 infection does have a certain risk of death, especially in the early stages of the epidemic, people are not vaccinated, and their resistance to the virus is weak. In the early stage, the new coronavirus has a strong affinity with lung epithelial cells, has a high attack power, and is prone to severe pneumonia. However, now people have found that the virus's attack on the lungs has weakened, and the population's resistance has increased after vaccination, so the mortality rate of the new crown has decreased. However, the risk of death still exists, especially for elderly people with underlying diseases or patients with lung infections. The virus still poses great threat to these people, and it is more difficult to rescue them, so you need to be vigilant.

Liu Ding also said that at present, the impact of the new crown on human beings will last for a long time. Whether wearing a mask or blocking it is not a long-term solution, it is just a last resort. The best way to control infectious diseases is to get vaccinated. However, after the vaccine is injected, the antibodies in the body will gradually weaken over time, so we still need to continue to replenish the dose. In addition, like the influenza virus, the new coronavirus is constantly "updating and replacing", and the newly mutated virus is likely to undergo immune escape, so scientific research should be strengthened, and vaccine development for new variant strains should be kept up in time. In the future, it may become possible to get regular vaccinations every once in a while.

Editor: Zhang Yu

Editor: Tian Ye

This article comes from [Life Times] and only represents the author's views. The national party media information public platform provides information release and dissemination services.

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