ABSTRACT
It is sad to hear discussions among the president of the International Union of Immunological Societies and the presidents of 15 other national immunology societies1. Their actions against COVID-19 to individual government leaders were not swift. Inconsistent and slow prevention against COVID-19 may prolong the pandemic worldwide. The best surveillance should be implemented in the world as soon as possible.
KEYWORDS
COVID-19; SARS; airborne; air travel; receptor ACE2; asymptomatic and presymptomatic
It is sad to hear discussions among the president of the International Union of Immunological Societies and the presidents of 15 other national immunology societies1. Their actions against COVID-19 to individual government leaders were not swift. SARS-CoV-2 was named after SARS by WHO on Feb. 1120202. From Feb. 11, expert scientists who should know the past lessons from SARS 17 years ago and MERS 8 years ago respectively should disseminate that SARS-Cov-2 is an airborneinfection virus which spreads person to person 3,4. They should also disseminate how to effectively prevent the airborne infection transmission. They should also ban air travel 4.
Hoffmann et al. discovered that SARS-CoV-2 uses the SARS-CoVreceptor ACE2 for host cell entry on April 16in 20205.
For mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic, the expert scientists should disseminate to the world on isolation of COVID-19asymptomatic and presymptomatic patients.
They should also disseminate there is still no vaccine for SARS and MERS despite dozens of attempts to develop them6. Since there is no vaccine for COVID-19, urgent isolation is an only strategy for mitigating the pandemic where the robust surveillance withpatient’s detection plays a key role.
Inconsistent and slow prevention against COVID-19 may prolong the pandemic worldwide. The best surveillance should be implemented in the world as soon as possible.
References:
1.Osier, F., Ting, J.P.Y., Fraser, J. et al. The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic: how have immunology societies contributed? Nat Rev Immunol 20, 594–602 (2020).https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-020-00428-4
2.https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it
3.https://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/ICHC_booklet_FINAL.pdf
4. https://www.who.int/health-topics/severe-acute-respiratory-syndrome#tab=tab_1
5. Hoffmann et al., 2020, Cell,181,271–280, April 16, 2020
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.02.052
6.https://www.mountsinai.org/about/newsroom/2020/itn-there-was-no-vaccine-for-sars-or-mers-will-there-be-one-for-the-new-coronavirus-josephine-ma-and-simone-mccarthy