Science: is the global spread of coronavirus affecting the global scientific community?

February 22, 2020 / BIOON / -- now, the prevalence of coronavirus in China forces Jeffrey Erlich, a Canadian neuroscientist at New York University Shanghai, to weigh his science against concerns about employees Erlich is doing animal experiments at a nearby university As part of efforts to control the disease, known as covid-19, officials there have asked him to stop research and use as few staff as possible to care for his animals But he's training mice and other species to do very complex tasks; the interruption could set his work back six to nine months "It's hard to find a balance between the efficiency of laboratory research and the safety and comfort of employees," he said When you put years of work into experiments, how do you define what is most important? "Erlich is just one of thousands of scientists in China whose work has been affected Universities across the country have been closed since January 25 The use of laboratories is limited, projects are put on hold, field work is interrupted, and travel is severely restricted Scientists from other parts of the world have also felt the impact, with cooperation with China suspended and many scientific conferences cancelled or postponed, some as far back as June Compared with the human suffering caused by the virus, the damage to research is negligible Before the publication of this article, the total number of cases had risen to 73332, of which 99% occurred in China and 1873 people died However, for individual researchers, the loss can be serious and stressful "Basically, it's all stopped," said John Speakman, who runs an animal behavior lab at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing "The damage is enormous The pressure on employees is really great "But Mr spickman said he understands why the Chinese government is shutting down universities and research institutes "It's annoying, but I fully support their approach "Picture source: https://cn.bing.com in Wuhan and other cities in Hubei Province, the center of the outbreak, this interruption is particularly serious These cities are almost completely isolated from the outside world "I work more now than I did before the outbreak," said Sara platto, a professor of animal behavior at Jianghan University in Wuhan "But her main obstacle is that teachers and students living on campus are confined to apartments, while platto, who lives off campus, can only go out once every three days She and her colleagues in Beijing studied the relationship between the new virus and another coronavirus isolated from pangolin But a paper she was writing was put off because her notes were in her office and she couldn't go back to school The situation in other cities is not so good "Unfortunately, the virus is very annoying at work," said Jingmai O'Connor, a paleontologist at the Institute of vertebrate paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing No one is responsible for collecting, no one signs documents, so things cannot be done, and overseas travel is cancelled No samples can be analyzed All we can do is to process the existing data on our computer It's terrible! "Some researchers in China have shifted from laboratories to writing papers and funding applications The National Science Foundation of China delayed the deadline for funding applications by several weeks, giving researchers time to catch up Many universities and research institutions have added online courses to ensure that students attend classes on time, which also keeps scientists busy Pu Muming, a neuroscientist at the center for excellence in brain science and intelligent technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said he teaches two hours of neurobiology every day: "surprisingly, thousands of people listen to it every day "China's blockade is half a world away Daniel Kammen, a renewable energy researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, said this hindered his lab's efforts to help build green transportation projects across China, including the introduction of electric taxis But laboratories dedicated to fighting covid-19 are speeding At Tsinghua University, novel coronavirus has shifted from Zhang to Linqi, and even members of his lab have decided to give up the Lunar New Year celebration last month "We decided to celebrate it through research," Zhang said The team synthesized and described a "spike" on the surface of the coronavirus, a protein that helps it enter human cells; Zhang's lab has developed a vaccine for this protein with industry partners Countless infectious disease laboratories around the world have suspended their routine work Christopher dye of the University of Oxford said: "the main impact is that we need to categorize our work and put other projects on the back burner while helping Chinese colleagues analyze a large amount of new covid-19 data "Photo source: the spread of feature China Barcroft media via Getty virus has disrupted many scientific conference plans So far, more than a dozen projects have been cancelled or delayed - not just in China, but elsewhere in Asia and Europe These include the International Symposium of the international society for stem cell research scheduled to be held in Shanghai in March, and the second ECS Energy Materials Symposium in Singapore in early April Organizers of the International Congress on infectious diseases, which was scheduled to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from February 20 to 24, postponed the meeting, saying the priority now is to fight the coronavirus epidemic in the country There is also growing concern that the epidemic could disrupt global drug supplies It is estimated that 80% of all active pharmaceutical ingredients are produced in China and India, which are raw materials for antibiotics and drugs for cancer, heart disease and diabetes With many Chinese factories closed, there could be a shortage of inventory "It's a very serious problem right now," said Michael Osterholm, head of the center for infectious disease research and policy at the University of Minnesota, which specializes in the effectiveness of drugs However, mariangela Simao, who assistant director general for access to medicines and health products, said who believed that covid-19 would not affect the "direct risk" of essential drug supply Simao's team keeps in touch with the International Pharmaceutical Association on a daily basis to track transportation disruptions at member companies Many companies have stocked up products for two to four months before the Spring Festival, she said Although there are some pharmaceutical companies in Hubei, there are far more less affected companies in Shanghai and other parts of China But Simao points out that if the virus is not under control, things may change "It all depends on how the epidemic evolves "Reference: Robert F service Coronavirus environmental snarls science worldwide Science 21 Feb 2020: Vol 367, issue 6480, pp 836-837 doi: 10.1126/science.367.6480.836