The World Health Organisation announced on Jan 12, 2020 that it has received information from China on a novel coronavirus gene sequence detected from unexplained viral pneumonia cases in Wuhan. Then around seven Chinese biotech companies started developing the rapid test kit for coronavirus. When the city of Wuhan was locked down on Jan 23, the novel coronavirus test products have been provided to most Chinese provinces according to SASAC (State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission). CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention) in America also got the rapid test kit quickly but it is now only available at CDC rather than locally. Now it takes only 30 minutes for one to get the test result in China.
In addition, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre has developed an anti-coronavirus spray. If one sprays on the throat every morning and evening, only 0.5ml to 1ml each time, novel coronavirus can effectively be prevented. It has also successfully passed the ethical review in China. On January 27, the first batch of anti-coronavirus sprays was sent to the emergency ward of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre.
Scientists around the world are also racing to develop the coronavirus vaccine. The Wuhan Institute of Virology attached to Chinese Academy of Sciences is conducting antiviral drug screening for coronavirus infections, establishment of animal models, and vaccine development. The China Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is also developing vaccines. It was the centre's first information on the first new coronavirus strain that laid the foundation for vaccine development.
Many Chinese companies and institutions are also making efforts. For example, the Translational Medicine Platform of Dongfang Hospital affiliated to Tongji University in Shanghai has cooperated with Siwei (Shanghai) Biotechnology Co., Ltd. to promote the R&D of a novel coronavirus mRNA vaccine. Ahead of most counterparts worldwide, Professor Yuan Guoyong, Chair Professor of the Department of Microbiology from the University of Hong Kong announced that he had succeeded in making vaccine seeds and will cooperate with mainland enterprises for animal testing. An American company in Massachusetts says it will start animal testing in one month. The reason why all parties have made the above-mentioned progress in a short time is that the Chinese scientists discovered the first new pneumonia case in Wuhan and published the gene sequence of the disease-causing novel coronavirus only 10 days later, and allowed scientists from all countries to obtain it for free. Foreigners in China, including students from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc., affected or unaffected are also being well looked after.
While the scientific research teams cooperate with each other, Chinese government, enterprises, foundations help out in various ways. Chinese tycoon Ma Yun, the founder of Alibaba, donated US$ 14.4 million through his charity foundation to support the development of a coronavirus vaccine, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provided an emergency grant of US$ 5 million to help relevant Chinese partners accelerate the development of pharmaceutical products. Some Chinese enterprises provide materials such as injectable soybeans for free to the R&D units that are urgently developing vaccines.
China also fully utilizes its technological advantages in AI and big data to tackle with coronavirus. The public company Zhongke Shuguang cooperated with industry partners to provide some computing power for free, and Alibaba Cloud opened AI computing power to public scientific research institutions for free to accelerate the development of new drugs and vaccines.
"I believe we will soon have the 'ultimate weapon' to eliminate the new type of coronavirus," Dong Yang, Chinese professor at Yunnan Agricultural University said, adding that many of the lethal cases caused by this new type of coronavirus were viruses with bacterial pneumonia, and bacterial pneumonia already has the vaccine to be used.
Seventeen years ago, the SARS died when the summer came. Viruses cannot stand the high temperature. Chinese people believe multiple difficulties revive a nation and see the coronavirus both a challenge and opportunity to accumulate more knowledge and experience in medical field and social management, which will be shared with countries along the belt and road and around the world.
(The writer is Associate Professor, Xi'an Polytechnic University, China)
Comments
Comments are closed.