China eyes epidemic prevention next year with vaccines
Uncertainties about the coronavirus have driven China to speed up research and development of vaccines, while still adopting previous experiences in prevention and control in winter and next year.
China has established a national novel coronavirus center to collect the virus, perform genome sequencing, conduct COVID-19-related international cooperation and develop national standards, Gao Fu, head of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Friday.
The world is still in the early stages of the pandemic, Gao said at the Beijing-based 2020 Zhongguancun Forum, which included China’s most senior epidemic experts, stressing that COVID-19 outbreaks have already adapted to humans.
Shi Zhengli, director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, said that the intermediate host and transmission path of the virus from nature to humans remain unknown, and may never be answered, which makes COVID-19 almost untraceable.
Although China’s experiences have proven successful, observers remain concerned about uncertainties, which come from limited knowledge about the virus, which is still spreading around the world, and also the risk of imported infections.
Zhong Nanshan, China’s renowned respiratory disease expert, said that the COVID-19 pandemic will very likely to continue to spread in winter and spring.
COVID-19 patients are most infectious five days before and after showing symptoms, with high fatality rates in severely ill patients, Zhong said, adding that in the absence of any intervention, COVID-19 would likely affect 60-70 percent of the global population, with a mortality of close to seven percent. Herd immunity should be achieved through mass vaccination, which will take about one to two years and require global cooperation, Zhong said.
Another attendee of the forum, China’s top vaccine researcher Chen Wei, stressed that vaccines are one of the most powerful scientific and technological weapons in curbing the pandemic.
Tao Lina, a Shanghai-based vaccine expert, told the Global Times that if more than 70 percent of Chinese people are vaccinated, reaching 90 percent effectiveness by 2021, current anti-epidemic measures will be updated to become more flexible and at a lower cost.