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