Expert suggests continued use of face masks
With winter approaching, public needs protection from influenza and COVID19
China’s leading respiratory expert urged people to continue wearing face masks as the winter flu season approaches.
Wearing face masks is still an effective wa y to pre vent both COVID19 and common flu, said Zhong Nanshan, a renowned expert on respiratory disease prevention.
Addressing the C hina Health Science and T echnology I nnovation Development Conference in Shenzhen on F riday, he said there ha ve been at least four cases of people catching both the influenza virus and novel coronavirus.
Zhong, also an academician of the Chinese Academ y of Engineering , underscored the vital role of fast and timely virus testing in identifying whether a patient is infec ted with the flu virus or novel coronavirus.
He said c urrent statistics showed that the flu infec tion rate in C hina has dropped dramatically this year because people were wearing face masks.
Clinical research showed that Remdesivir could help shor ten patients’ recover y period, but its effects on se vere patients are not obvious, he said.
In terms of another medicine, Chloroquine, which has caused debate and divided opinions among medical specialists treating COVID19, Zhong said it has some ef fects on patients who take 500 milligrams twice a day.
He made the comment based on clinical experiences of doctors at Sun Yatsen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yatsen U niversity, in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.
Zhong also said the blood plasma of patients who are in the process of recovery, and some traditional C hinese medicines, have proven to have certain ef fects in COVID 19 treatment. Clinical observations showed that Lianhua Qingwen, a commonly available OTC medicine in C hina, could help alle viate COVID 19 symptoms.
Zhong also said of all the vaccines that are still in the process of clinical experiments, C hina’s vaccines are making steady progress and not falling behind.
Effectiveness, he stressed, is only one of the many factors to determine whether a vaccine is a good one.
Other factors, such as whether the vaccine is con venient for produc tion, whether it has sideeffects, how long the antibody could last and the cost of transpor tation and restoration, all matter in the judgement.
Previous e xperience showed that it usually tak es five to six years to find a “good vaccine” that could be widely used. Now it might tak e two or three years to find a good COVID19 vaccine, Zhong said.