For scientists studying the new coronavirus, 2020 is an important year. This year, science is like a new virus, spreading around the world, leaving a permanent mark on human health, behavior, and nature—and science itself.
Although we may be tired of hearing the word "unprecedented" used to describe the past year, medical research has indeed dealt with many of the challenges of 2020. Researchers adapt, learn and grow at an unprecedented speed. By the time you read this article, there may have been countless new developments-for better or for worse. No matter what happens, one thing is certain: the world needs science.
There is nothing that draws public attention to science more than the global health crisis. After the World Health Organization announced the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, people all over the world are seeking answers from experts. Where did the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 come from? How can we stop the spread of this virus and save the lives of those infected?
In many communities, people have learned that they need to wash their hands frequently, wear a mask, maintain a physical distance of 1 meter, and stay at home as much as possible. In these communities, the "curve" of virus transmission was flattened, and by the end of summer, the entire country was trying to return to normal. In the autumn, the virus resurged in many places, and many areas that resisted public health guidelines have never seen a breakthrough in stabilizing cases. No matter how governments and people around the world face the new crown pneumonia, we can say with certainty: scientists have been busy for a year.
Sara Sawyer of the University of Colorado Boulder said: “As a virologist who didn’t pay much attention before, it was very confusing. Then, all of a sudden, everyone on the planet was watching carefully. Examine your research and your field..."
Not just virologists in the spotlight, physicists and medical researchers have also been analyzing the distance that virus-carrying droplets travel in the air-such as the droplets that we sneez, cough, talk or breathe. .
Put on a mask
In the early stage of the spread of new coronary pneumonia, medical staff lacked protective equipment, especially N95 masks. Public health officials, including the Director of the US Department of Health, even discourage the public from buying masks. But by early April 2020, a new study completely overturned this suggestion and supported people to wear masks widely.
Redfield explained: “Data shows that people without symptoms may also spread the virus, and the CDC will extend the recommendation to wear masks to the general community.” Prior to this, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will focus on the recommendation to wear masks. In people with symptoms, to reduce the spread of respiratory droplets.
Another lesson learned is about the use of ventilators to treat patients with COVID-19. In the early days, medical clinics scrambled to acquire these devices—many car factories even started mass production of these devices. But over time, we learned that they pose risks to the health of health workers (including those exposed to virus particles) and patients, such as lung damage caused by ventilators, so the demand for such devices has slowed.
Before 2020, most of us have not heard of the term "asymptomatic carrier", although the concept is not new. In the typhoid fever epidemic in the early 20th century, an asymptomatic cook infected about 50 to 120 people. This woman was named Mary Mullen, also known as "Typhoid Mary". During the COVID-19 pandemic, the asymptomatic carrier may be any of us. Researchers estimated in July 2020 that up to 63% of SARS-CoV-2 transmission may come from asymptomatic carriers (those who have been infected but have not yet shown symptoms), and at least 3.5% come from asymptomatic patients (never showed symptoms). Symptomatic cases).
As COVID-19 hot spots continue to erupt, extensive nucleic acid testing will play a key role in preventing the spread of the disease.
face the challenge
Much of the work of scientists in 2020 is to reuse existing ideas and methods to combat this virus. These tasks involve tracing the source of infection, conducting tests to identify infected persons and caring for the sick. Even the technique of using convalescent plasma therapy—injecting the so-called survivor’s serum containing COVID-19 antibodies into the patient—has been 100 years old.
Although SARS-CoV-2 is a new strain, the coronavirus itself is not a new virus. A virus closely related to this epidemic virus has survived in horseshoe bats for decades. But this does not mean that humans can directly infect SARS-CoV-2 from bats. Researchers believe that the virus also spent some time in the intermediate host before it was transmitted to humans. As of the fall of 2020, the possible intermediate host is pangolin, a scaly, anteater-like mammal distributed in parts of Asia and Africa, but the specific animal source has not yet been determined.
The most groundbreaking work occurred in vaccine research, especially in modern vaccine research. Sawyer said: "If it succeeds, this will be the first of its kind. This is very different. But it is actually injecting people with messenger RNA."
Even if this particular vaccine (among dozens of vaccines under development) cannot change the course of the pandemic, it is also advancing scientific understanding. Traditional vaccines, including many vaccines against COVID-19, whose active ingredients are inactivated or weakened viruses, or part of them. In modern vaccines, a genetic information messenger RNA (mRNA) is injected into a transport vessel and then delivered all the way to a small number of cells. Once the messenger RNA exists, the cells of our body will read the instructions of the messenger RNA and produce the surface protein of the coronavirus. These proteins are transported to the cell surface, where they trigger the immune response needed to provide sustained protection.
