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Interview with Zhong Nanshan's team: How do humans deal with the mutation of the new coronavirus?

 Last Update: 2021-11-11
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Interview with Zhong Nanshan's team: How do humans deal with the mutation of the new coronavirus?

Interview with Zhong Nanshan's team: How do humans deal with the mutation of the new coronavirus? Interview with Zhong Nanshan's team: How do humans deal with the mutation of the new coronavirus?

(China Focus Face to Face) Interview with Zhong Nanshan's team: How do humans deal with the mutation of the new coronavirus?

China News Service, Beijing, November 3, title: Interview with Zhong Nanshan's team: How do humans deal with the mutation of the new coronavirus?

China News Agency reporter Li Chun Zhang Su

The 2020 National Science and Technology Awards Conference was held in Beijing on November 3.
Zhong Nanshan's respiratory disease prevention and control innovation team won the National Science and Technology Progress Award Innovation Team
.

From SARS to COVID-19, the team's outstanding performance in the face of major public health emergencies left a deep impression on the outside world

Since its inception, what important scientific research achievements have been made by Zhong Nanshan's respiratory disease prevention and control innovation team? Regarding the new crown pneumonia epidemic, what are the latest thinking of the team?

Leading experts from the China News Service “Focus on China” interview team , Zhong Nanshan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a well-known respiratory scientist, and He Jianxing, director of the National Center for Respiratory Medicine, and dean of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health , gave an authoritative interpretation
.

Academician Dean

Excerpts from the interview are as follows:

China News Service: What was the original intention of the decision to establish a team and study respiratory diseases 42 years ago? Why did you choose to join this team? Over the years, has the team's research direction changed? What is the relationship between determining or changing these research directions and the actual needs of the development of China's medical and health services?

Zhong Nanshan: This is probably not 42 years ago but 50 years ago
.

In 1971, Premier Zhou proposed the group prevention and treatment of chronic bronchitis.

Zhong Nanshan: Prime Minister

42 years ago, the Institute of Respiratory Diseases was actually established.
We ranged from chronic bronchitis to emphysema, pulmonary heart disease, and then expanded to the entire respiratory system, including various bronchial asthma, lung cancer, etc.
In general, (Research) A common disease in the country
.

Later, sudden public health incidents (research) were added, because SARS or SARS appeared at the end of 2002
.

Because we are engaged in respiratory diseases, especially the SARS fatality rate is 10%, and the disease is developing very fast, which is our key research task

Since then, (the team) has done a lot of (research) on emerging infectious diseases, such as H7N9 avian influenza, H5N1 in 2005 and 2006, H1N1 in 2009, and MERS in 2015.
After that is the new crown in 2020
.

Now, the entire research institute has devoted a lot of energy to research on the new crown

We mainly focus on the needs of the country.
Whatever we need to solve, we will solve this (problem)
.

Especially (considering) the impact of public health emergencies on the national economy and the world, (this) is of course our main direction

China News Agency reporter: Why do you propose that medical research should "stand upright for the people"? Academic research, clinical treatment, disease prevention, which one do you think is more important?

Zhong Nanshan: This is still based on the actual situation we encountered (starting)
.

One is the frequent occurrence of common diseases

Zhong Nanshan:

The concept of "Situation" is that our country should develop "simple, inexpensive, effective, and safe" medicines, devices or treatment methods suitable for national conditions
.

The result of "topping the sky" and "standing the ground" is "for the people
.

" What we do, first focus on the international frontier, and then use simple, safe and effective methods to solve problems

From the perspective of a disease as a whole, scientific research, clinical treatment and prevention are all important
.

We must say which is important.

We are doctors, what is the main manifestation for us? It is the early detection of patients, early diagnosis and early intervention
.
In this new crown (epidemic), China's greatest success is early detection, early diagnosis, early isolation, and cutting off the surface of infection at the grassroots level
.

China News Agency reporter: Whether facing SARS or COVID-19, the team's outstanding performance in the face of major public health incidents left a deep impression on the outside world.
Can you decode why this team can? What experience can you share? How can the team's "normal" scientific research innovation and medical treatment experience help in "wartime"? What are the "wartime" problems that "usually" did not anticipate?

Zhong Nanshan: I think there are two main reasons
.
One reason is that these diseases are infectious diseases of the respiratory system.
We study the respiratory system and do our part
.
Regardless of rescue, diagnosis, or treatment, we must first consider the needs of the people
.
This unknown, we should first explore, this is a very important motivation
.

Zhong Nanshan:

Another very important (reason) is that we have been engaged for so many years, (treated) various respiratory diseases, various organ failures caused by respiratory distress syndrome and so on
.
We probably have some foundation, a bit of experience, and a bit of strength, because its laws will not depart from those items, so we still feel a little emboldened and a little confident
.

In this case, (we) will take the initiative to take on some tasks, so why at that time (2003) was able to propose "transfer the most serious patients to our hospital"? One is pursuit and the other is motivation
.

He Jianxing: Respiratory diseases are widespread
.
Since 2004, according to the characteristics of the disease, the entire key laboratory and research institute have focused on four types of diseases as a breakthrough, including acute respiratory infectious diseases, chronic obstructive lung, lung cancer, and asthma, including allergic diseases
.
For these four common diseases, (we) have always done a lot of work around how to analyze pathogens, sources, and genetics
.

He Jianxing:

There are more applications in the new crown, like extracorporeal membrane lung
.
This time I encountered many severe patients (critically ill patients) with new coronary disease.
One of our patients was able to be rescued after using extracorporeal membrane lung support for 111 days
.
This kind of technology relies on a considerable amount of research and work, as well as practice, in order to cope with emergencies
.

When encountering a sudden respiratory infectious disease such as the new crown, the empirical theories that are usually trained and formed in practice are applied and researched based on the characteristics of the new infectious disease.
(This is) a very important factor for rapid results.
This is the most important basis for the "combination of peace and war
.
"

All the kung fu, if it is not accumulated in peacetime, it will not be available in wartime
.

Reporter from China News Service: The new crown pneumonia epidemic is still spreading globally, and there have been epidemics in many parts of China recently
.
From 2019 to the present, to what extent have we been aware of the new coronavirus? With the development of drugs and vaccines, can we completely eliminate the new coronavirus?

Zhong Nanshan: It has been almost two years since the outbreak
.
The source of the virus is still not very clear.
Although there is no very effective drug, there are some preliminary (results) regarding its transmission law, characteristics, incubation period after infection, and how to treat it, such as in the treatment of antibodies.
There are still some ways
.

Zhong Nanshan:

Some work has also been done on vaccines
.
Regardless of foreign and domestic, relatively large and relatively fast results have been achieved in vaccine research and development
.
The vaccine will be developed in at least (it will take) 5 or 8 years, and this time it will be released in half a year
.
Vaccines have proved with certainty both abroad and at home that they have played a great role in (controlling) the exacerbation rate of the disease and reducing the mortality rate
.

But now there are many things that are unknown.
The first is that the virus is still changing, and now it has become a more contagious Delta virus.
This virus has lasted for about 6 months.
Now it seems that the Delta virus will continue for a while.
Time
.

There are still many problems facing the establishment of so-called herd immunity
.
Regardless of whether it is foreign or domestic, generally, after two injections of the full course of vaccines, the antibody titer in the body drops to about one-tenth of the original, so a booster injection is required
.
Will it gradually become a flu-like situation in the future, if it happens, it will be played frequently.
This rule still needs to be explored again
.

Another point can be seen that (prevention and control) of the new coronavirus is not the treatment, but the prevention of transmission
.
China has been very successful in community self-prevention, early detection, early diagnosis, and early isolation
.

This step is now recognized for the new crown virus
.

When will the new coronavirus be eliminated? I don't think this virus can be completely eliminated.
It may exist for a long time, but the large-scale spread of the virus can be controlled.
This is our current view
.

China News Agency reporter: You mentioned earlier that China will be able to complete the full immunization process for 80% of the population by the end of this year.
Does this mean that the herd immunity barrier can be fully established? What issues should we pay attention to after the establishment of the immune barrier?

Zhong Nanshan: We have probably completed nearly 1 billion to 1.
1 billion injections for the entire course of immunization against the new crown
.
By the end of the year, we hope to reach more than 80%
.
I am afraid (the vaccination rate) will have to reach more than 80% before the so-called herd immunity can be established
.

Zhong Nanshan:

Herd immunity has never been done in any experiment in the world.
This concept is derived from experience
.
In the past, as most people got the flu or got a vaccine, an immune mechanism would be established
.

But no one has ever done a prospective study, saying that the amount of vaccination can establish a herd immunity
.
So now this work still needs a process of observation
.

In fact, booster needles are closely related to the establishment of herd immunity
.
Will it last a year after two injections? It seems that our indicators are not enough, and antibody titers are only part of it
.
The other part is cellular immunity.
Some lymphocytes responsible for killing viruses have a memory effect.
When stimulated by the virus, it will release some biological substances such as interferon to kill the virus
.
This part has not yet been counted (into)
.

After the strengthening needle is established, the more it is done, the more opportunities for this country to establish herd immunity may be greater
.

Even so, I think there are still a few to be established
.
One is personal protection that is effective now, such as wearing a mask and keeping a distance will become the norm in the future
.

Of course, it must be a matter of the world to really eliminate community infections
.
We are calling, the United Nations and the World Health Organization are also calling for this work to be done together, so that it is possible to truly control the spread of the new crown
.

Reporter from China News Service: At present, in the research, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, what kind of scientific research is still being carried out by your team? What other problems are being overcome?

He CCB : bell academician led, we have established a national laboratory, research new crown prevention and control at the national level to co-ordinate the laboratory
.
The other is the further development and improvement of vaccines and the evaluation of the effects of vaccine use.
This is an important task
.
There are also some life support technologies such as the research and development of new ventilators and extracorporeal membrane lungs
.

Academician He Jianxing

Because it was a contact war at the beginning, the basic research was not so in-depth
.
With a long time, many academicians , professors join together to bell academician leader among laboratory, protein structure, molecular structure more research
.

Fellow Fellow

The new crown antibody is now we are doing relatively well
.
From a therapeutic point of view, high-titer monoclonal antibodies and even cocktail antibodies, which are two kinds of antibodies mixed together to fight the virus, are our previous clinically effective experience, so now we are still focusing on antibody research
.

The research and development of small molecule drugs is also part of the work.
We are looking for the easiest to break through (drugs) that are helpful for the current emergency use, and the coverage is still relatively wide
.

Reporter from China News Service: Although it may be too early to ask this question, I still want to ask whether there will be a global epidemic such as new coronary pneumonia in the future? If it does happen, how should humans respond?

He Jianxing: The virus is very sensitive and is constantly mutating
.
Generally speaking, there will be a relatively obvious mutation in about 6 years, and a relatively large mutation in more than ten years.
Each large mutation will cause a period of epidemic
.
After SARS, Zhong academicians led the team proposed rule change this virus, that is why the importance of research and construction of transmission of the virus to do anti
.
With the support of leaders at all levels, (we) established a scientific research system and medical center
.

He Jianxing: Academician

Zhong Nanshan: (The epidemic) will appear in the future
.
The coronavirus alone has appeared three times in this century
.
The first time was SARS at the end of 2002; the second time was Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, in 2012; the third time was the new coronavirus, at the end of 2019 and early 2020
.

Zhong Nanshan:

The question now is how to treat it
.
Before effective drugs, vaccines, and antibodies are developed, it is very important to carry out community group prevention and control, which means that prevention is the focus
.
This must have some impact on the economy, and these two must be balanced
.
Some countries have completely let go, but recently have seen a significant increase in infections
.

Humans will always find a balance and some preventive vaccines.
Although they cannot be used for life (immunization), they can always move forward
.
The new type of virus infection will definitely come again, but it will not be like the current pandemic, because this time the lessons learned by human beings are far deeper than others, and some methods will definitely be devised to control it
.
(over)

Focus on the new crown pneumonia epidemic

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