Author | Chen Huanhuan
Beijing time on the early morning of January 31, the World Health Organization decided to confirm the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infection epidemic as a "public health emergency of international concern" (PHEIC).
At the same time, the WHO spoke highly of China’s epidemic control. But in China, as the "sweeping the pot" drama continues to be staged, various voices of doubts and controversy continue one after another.
also announced on January 31 that Singapore had successfully replicated 2019-nCoV, becoming the third country after China and Australia to achieve this result.
The person in charge of this research is Wang Linfa, a professor at the Duke-National University of Singapore School of Medicine and an academician of the Australian Academy of Technology, Science and Engineering, who has participated in the Chinese SARS research.
"The domestic public opinion is crazy." On January 31, Wang Linfa, who stated that he was "extremely busy", pointed out in an interview with the "China Science News": When infectious diseases break out, government departments should immediately organize an "emergency national team." "Instead of relying solely on the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"China Science News": The World Health Organization highly praises China's epidemic control, but there are some doubts in China. How do you evaluate the response to the epidemic?
● Wang Linfa :
Compared with SARS, the response to this epidemic is obviously better. Especially after the confirmation of "person-to-person transmission", the response measures were timely and the degree of information disclosure was also high. But January 21 was a watershed, and performance before that was problematic.
Although the current public opinion is crazy, I think that Chinese scientists performed very well in this epidemic, and the earliest discovery work was made by clinicians. Such meaningful contributions should not be ignored.
"China Science News": Is there any conflict between epidemic control and scientific research work and paper publication during this period?
●Wang Linfa :
There is a little "competition" in scientific research, which is normal, and the same is true in other countries. I think the biggest lesson this time should be to strengthen collaboration between various government departments, rather than relying on CDC completely, because most Chinese scientists are outside the CDC system.
For example, I study bats and bat viruses. I have long-term and in-depth cooperation with Wuhan Virus of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In my opinion, they are the world's top research institutions for bat viruses, but they are also not in the CDC system. When an infectious disease breaks out, government departments should immediately organize an "emergency national team" so that other agencies can participate and collaborate on an equal footing with the CDC. If controlled well, the response and research of the epidemic should promote each other, so that scientific research in the response to the epidemic is positive and meaningful.
At the same time, I strongly disagree with personal attacks on any scientist. This is totally unhelpful. I want to emphasize that this is a national emergency response system, not a personal problem or responsibility.
"China Science News": Singapore also has a new coronavirus epidemic, what is the situation now?
● Wang Linfa:
Singapore’s first confirmed case of new pneumonia occurred one week ago. Therefore, the successful replication of the new pneumonia strain is a key step taken by Singapore to respond to the evolving epidemic.
Our research is in close collaboration with the General Hospital, Singapore Healthcare Group Medical Center, National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID) and the Ministry of Health to replicate 2019-nCoV from clinical samples of infected patients.
Our cooperation has been very transparent from the very beginning, and has already benefited a lot.
"China Science News": After the laboratory leak in 2004, SARSVirus research has completely stalled, how do you comment? After SARS, China has established a direct reporting system for monitoring information, focusing on monitoring various infectious diseases, but this time it seems to have no effect?
● Wang Linfa:
Indeed, from 2003 to 2004, the SARS virus leaked in 3 laboratories, which caused certain harm. However, in general, I think the ban on SARS virus research has been overreacted since then.
However, the monitoring and reporting system established after SARS in China is still very useful. For example, it played an important role in the avian influenza outbreak, and I think it also played a role in this epidemic. The main problem this time was that timely and effective actions were not taken under the limited information at the time.
"China Science News": You have in-depth and continuous research on bats, and you have also participated in related work in the SARS epidemic. Do you think the virus originated from bats?
● Wang Linfa: Compared with 17 years ago,
has greatly improved China's scientific research capabilities, so this time I was not invited to participate in the research on China's new coronavirus. But I personally think that the new coronavirus this time is most likely to be derived from bats. Now I have to wait patiently for the result.
In 2005, Shi Zhengli, a researcher from Wuhan Institute of Virology, and others published a paper in Science. The main conclusion was that the gene sequence analysis showed that the genome sequence homology of bat SARS-like virus and human SARS virus reached 92%.
However, it was not until 8 years later that Shi Zhengli’s team isolated a live virus similar to the SARS virus from the faeces of a bat cave in a bat cave in Yunnan. It has a high degree of homology with the known SARS virus. This study is clear Ground revealed the source of the SARS virus.
is similar this time. Shi Zhengli's team has now found a bat gene sequence with 96% consistency. I want to tell everyone, whether they are scientists or the general public, please be patient. Scientists will eventually be able to confirm its source. I think it is most likely a bat.
In fact, bats and viruses have a very good symbiotic relationship. This relationship has existed for millions of years, and it has existed before the birth of human beings. Moreover, our recent studies have confirmed that bats are a kind of magical social mammals, and humans can learn a lot from them.
I have a research funded by the Singapore government. The subject is called "Learning from Bats: From Genomics, Virus Control to Cancer Fighting". Bats themselves are not wrong. They live in harmony and health with viruses. Various human activities have changed the environment, causing more and more animal viruses to infect humans.
