The hypothesis that the COVID-19 pandemic can originate from the Wuhan Institute of Virology is of great interest to the world. (Photo: CNN) Where is the “birthplace of COVID-19”? The laboratories at the Wuhan Institute of Virology are classified as the safest, or biosafety level 4 (BSL4). They are formulated to control dangerous bacteria and viruses that can cause serious diseases for which there is no cure or vaccine. The researchers here are all well-trained professionals and equipped with protective gear. “ The laboratory is equipped with an HVAC feeder system so viruses cannot escape through the exhaust, all wastes are treated with chemicals or high temperatures to ensure that no (pathogens) are still active. dynamic “, said Dr. Gregory Koblentz at George Mason University. In addition to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, there are still 59 similar scientific research institutions in the world. Meanwhile, there are no international standards specifying the level of safety, security and responsibility in the preservation of disease-carrying specimens at these facilities. The possibility of problems in these labs is entirely possible. This rate is even higher for the thousands of lower-level laboratories than the Wuhan research facilities scattered around the world. The laboratories at the Wuhan Institute of Virology are classified as the safest. (Photo: CNN) Man-made disaster A prime example of a disaster stemming from a laboratory accident is the human H1N1 virus. After the terrible pandemic of 1918, in 1977, the H1N1 epidemic once again leaked from the laboratories of the Soviet Union and China, then spread all over the world. In 2001, a mentally disturbed employee of a scientific laboratory in the US spread anthrax spores across the country, killing five people. In 2004, two Chinese researchers exposed to the SARS virus became the source of infection, one of the infected people died. In 2014, the US Food and Drug Administration discovered that some samples carried smallpox at risk of being released. Lynn Klotz, a senior fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Nuclear Nonproliferation, warned that scientific labs have posed many public health threats in history. history, and a similar situation is likely to repeat itself in the future. “ Human error accounts for more than 70% of laboratory incidents “, said Mr. Klotz. A prime example of a disaster stemming from a laboratory accident is the human H1N1 virus. Is Wuhan bat research dangerous? GOF research involves editing pathogens to make them more contagious, more dangerous, or easier to evade vaccines and treatments, all with the aim of improving measures against these pathogens. this disease. GOF has long been an area of ​​intense controversy. The US government, the largest funder of research on the link between COVID-19 and bats in Wuhan, disagrees with several independent scientists. They could not agree on whether this work should be classified as a GOF study. Epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch expressed concern about studying the SARS-CoV-2 virus in bats: I am afraid that it will create a new strain of virus that, although not deadly if infected by the laboratory staff, will cause a new pandemic.” . “ This research is unnecessary and does not contribute to drug or vaccine development ‘, said Professor Richard Ebright at Rutgers University, a longtime GOF expert. The US government also banned GOF research in 2014. The ban was relaxed in 2017, under which some cases will be considered to be allowed to operate based on the application of the research. However, the review process has been criticized as lacking transparency and unreliable. Leading US health experts Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health have denied the research on COVID-19 and Wuhan bats is of the GOF category, but independent scientists disagree with this. their statement. The US government is the largest funder of research on the link between COVID-19 and bats in Wuhan. (Photo: AP) There is currently no clear scientific evidence on whether the virus that causes the COVID-19 pandemic leaked from a laboratory. However, there is some indirect evidence in favor of this hypothesis: Wuhan is only about 1,600 km north of the bat cave containing the SARS-CoV-2 virus, scientists from Wuhan are also known to often frequent visits to bat caves to take samples. Alina Chan, an expert in molecular biology at the Broad Institute, said the SARS-CoV-2 virus does not grow quickly after infecting people. This is one of the signs that the virus came from the lab. Ms. Chan added that the research on the SARS-CoV-2 virus will not be abandoned even after the pandemic ends. On the contrary, this study can be further extended in the future.

Professor Marc Lipsitch, professor of epidemiology at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, said the scientists signed a letter published in the journal Science to call for the attention of the scientific community. “What we’re saying is that the available evidence doesn’t rule out a laboratory origin of COVID-19, nor does it rule out a natural origin. And there’s really no solid evidence either. It’s just that. There’s quite a bit of evidence lacking right now, and we’re calling for it to be addressed because it’s such an important question,” said Prof. Meanwhile, the Business Standard on May 29 said that since last year, Professor Angus Dalgleish (British) and Norwegian scientist Birger Sorensen have come to a conclusion about the possibility that “the SARS-CoV-2 virus originated from To confirm their position, the two scientists published a 22-page paper in the journal Biophysical Discovery, explaining that, in the course of their research Researching the vaccine, they discovered “special traces” that the virus was not of natural origin.The clue was a row of four amino acids, which generate a positive charge and bind to negative human cells. . “The law of nature is that you can’t have four positive amino acids in a row. The only way to have this is to make it yourself,” commented Professor Angus Dalgleish. The article by these two scientists also affirms: “We now have no doubt that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was purposefully manipulated, forcing us to reconsider the We think there are retro-engineered viruses. They changed the virus, then tried to figure it out in sequence years ago. We’ve seen leaks. We know it’s happening in the lab, and we know it’s happening. We also know from the reports we’ve found that the coronavirus is studied in Biosafety Level 2 or 3 laboratories.” Both scientists are respected experts: Prof Angus Dalgleish is a professor of oncology in London known for his groundbreaking work on HIV vaccines while Birger Sorensen is a virologist and president of Immunor Pharmaceuticals, which is developing a COVID-19 vaccine called Biovacc-19. On May 26, US President Joe Biden ordered the country’s intelligence community to unravel the conspiracy theory that the virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory and must provide an answer within 90 days. Doubts Apparently, the hypothesis that the SARS-CoV-2 virus could be the result of a scientific experiment has heated up the debate among scientists about the operation of the safest biological laboratories in the world today. . The Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is suspected of leaking the virus, is a virology research institute managed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Located in Jiangxia District, Wuhan, Hubei, Wuhan Institute of Virology has China’s first biosafety level 4 (BSL – 4) laboratory and has close relations with the National Laboratory. Galveston in the US, the Center International de Recherche en Infectiologie in France, and the National Microbiology Laboratory in Canada. Gregory Koblentz, director of Biodefense Graduate, revealed that BSL-4 is built to work safely and securely against the most dangerous bacteria and viruses that can cause serious illnesses for which there is no treatment or vaccine. : “There’s an HVAC filtration system, so viruses can’t escape through the exhaust. Any wastewater that leaves the facility is treated with chemicals or high temperatures to ensure that nothing remains alive. The researchers themselves are highly trained and wear protective clothing.” Statistics show that there are 59 BSL-4s around the world but there are no binding international standards for safe, confidential and responsible work with pathogens. The report, Mapping Maximum Biological Containment Labs Globally, shows that accidents can happen, sometimes in top-tier facilities, and more often in lower-level labs. For example, the human H1N1 virus – the same flu that caused the 1918 pandemic, was leaked in 1977 in the Soviet Union (former) and China. In 2001, a mentally disturbed employee at a US laboratory sent anthrax spores across the country, killing five people. Two Chinese researchers exposed to SARS in 2004 spread the disease to others, resulting in one death. In 2014, a handful of vials of smallpox were discovered during an office move by the US Food and Drug Administration. Lynn Klotz, a senior scientist at the Centers for Non-Proliferation and Control, has been sounding the alarm for years about the public safety threats posed by such facilities. “Human error accounts for more than 70% of errors in laboratories, adding that US researchers must rely on data from freedom of information requests to learn about incidents.” hey,” Lynn Klotz said. These incidents do not mean that COVID-19 has leaked from a laboratory and the fact that there is no scientific evidence to support the scenario yet, said molecular biologist Richard Ebright of Rutgers University. laboratory accident for this pandemic.

Wuhan Institute of Virology, China. Photo: AFP 59 leading biological laboratories in the world The Wuhan Institute of Virology is among the most secure, often referred to as biosafety level 4, or BSL4. Such laboratory facilities are built to operate safely and securely against some of the world’s deadliest viruses and bacteria, which can cause serious diseases for which there is no cure or vaccine. . “There are air-conditioning filtration systems that prevent viruses from escaping through exhaust gases and wastewater, which are treated with chemicals or high temperatures to make sure nothing remains. at,” Gregory Koblentz, director of the Biosafety Program at George Mason University, told AFP. In addition, the researchers themselves are professionally trained and wear protective gear when conducting experiments. There are about 59 such biological laboratories around the world, a report co-led by Mr. Koblentz published this week said. “There are no mandatory international standards for safety, security and accountability standards for diseases,” the report said. Accidents can happen at any time Accidents can sometimes happen in even the world’s top facilities and are even more likely to happen in thousands of lower-end labs. The H1N1 virus – the same type of virus that caused the 1918 pandemic was leaked in 1977 in the Soviet Union and China, and then spread around the world. In 2001, a mentally challenged employee at an American laboratory sent parcels of anthrax spores across the United States, killing five people. Two Chinese researchers were exposed to the SARS virus in 2004 and spread the disease to others, killing one person. Lynn Klotz, a senior scientist at the Centers for Arms Control and Disarmament, has raised the alarm about the threat to the public from such experimental facilities. “Human errors account for more than 70% of errors in laboratories,” the researcher said. Controversy entitled “Strengthening the research function” There are controversies within the US government, which also funds the Wuhan coronavirus research program, and some independent scientists over whether gains of function – GOF) should be conducted. GOF studies focus on tailoring pathogens to make them more infectious, more dangerous, or easier to escape from treatments and vaccines – all with the aim of learning how to cope with them more effectively. This field has been going on for a long time. The debate heated up when, in 2011, two research groups showed that they could make avian influenza viruses more infectious in animals. Harvard epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch told AFP he was concerned that “would create a strain of the virus that, if it infects laboratory workers, not only kills the person but causes a pandemic”. “This study was not requested and does not contribute to the development of drugs or vaccines,” said molecular biologist Richard Ebright of Rutgers University, one of the strongest opponents of the type of research. this said. In 2014, the US government announced it would stop funding such research, but the process was criticized for its lack of transparency and trust. Late last year, a non-profit organization received funding from the US for research “to predict the risk of virus escaping from the laboratory” from corona virus in bats to humans in Wuhan. This week, before a question from Congress, experts Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci of the US National Institutes of Health also denied conducting activities to strengthen research functions.

When the Covid-19 pandemic first broke out, the vaccine was still just a ray of light at the end of the tunnel. The term “community immunity” is to denote the end of the epidemic. Community immunity means that when enough Americans are protected from the virus, the pathogen is eliminated, New York Times said. Today, more than half of all adults in the United States receive at least one dose of the vaccine. But vaccination rates are declining, and there is consensus among scientists and public health experts that public immunity cannot be achieved, at least in the near future, and perhaps never. hours. They came to the conclusion that the virus could become a controllable threat that will continue to spread in the US for many years to come. It still causes flare-ups with hospitalizations and deaths, but on a smaller scale. Depends on the strain’s ability of the virus How much smaller future outbreaks will be and the number of cases and deaths is uncertain. It depends on how many countries in the world are vaccinated, and more importantly, how the virus evolved. Viruses are evolving too quickly. The new strains spread very quickly. Meanwhile, the immunization speed is too slow. That makes the expectation of community immunity even more distant. The United States is one of the countries with the highest rates of Covid-19 vaccination in the world. Photo: New York Times. Experts believe that vaccinating high-risk groups will be crucial to limit the size of new outbreaks. “The virus is unlikely to go away, but we are doing all we can to see if it is likely to cause only mild infections,” said Rustom Antia, an evolutionary biologist at Emory University in Atlanta, USA. said. To date, experts still cannot be sure what percentage of the population has anti-Covid-19 antibodies. Even for people with antibodies, experts cannot be sure of their immunity to new strains. Dr Anthony S. Fauci, the leading adviser to the Joe Biden administration on Covid-19, admits the change in thinking among experts. “We stopped using the term community immunity. I said, vaccinate a sufficient number of people, the level of infection will drop,” he said. Why is community immunity difficult to achieve When the corona virus begins to spread globally in early 2020, many experts believe that public immunity is the key to escaping the pandemic. That is when enough people have acquired immunity, including through natural infection or vaccination, when the virus will run out of people to infect and go away on its own. 30% of the US population is reluctant to get the Covid-19 vaccine. Photo: New York Times. The concept of public immunity has become a tacit target in many countries, including the United States. Initially, the threshold for achieving public immunity is 60-70% of the infected population. Most experts, including Dr. Fauci, believe that the United States can achieve public immunity before vaccines become available. But when the vaccine started to be distributed, this threshold estimate began to increase. Initial estimates were made based on the spread of the original virus. Variant B.117 – first discovered in the UK – was up to 60% more infectious than the original strain. Experts estimate the new threshold to 80%. If new strains continue to grow and spread, or if scientists find vaccinated people can still transmit the virus, the threshold calculation may need to be revised again. In addition, recent polls show that about 30% of the US population is afraid to be vaccinated. “Theoretically we could get an immunization rate of 90% of the population, but in reality it’s very difficult,” said Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. While vaccination resistance is the main reason why the United States cannot achieve public immunity, it is not the main reason. Community immunity is often seen as a national target, but it’s a vague concept in a country as large as the United States. On a global scale, this possibility becomes even more distant. Immunization is still the key Dr. David M. Morens, senior advisor to Dr. Fauci, said community immunity can vary with population size, human behavior and many other factors. A small outbreak in a low vaccination area could spill over and hit an area where the majority of the population was vaccinated. Immunization remains the key to dealing with the epidemic. Photo: New York Times. At the same time, the connections between the countries of the world, especially when the travel restriction is reduced, underscores the urgency of protection, not only for Americans but for other countries as well. Any new strain of Covid-19 that arises in the world will eventually come to America. At that time, the vaccination rate is the decisive factor for the protection level of the community with the new strains. Many parts of the world lag far behind the United States in immunization. Less than 2% of Indians are vaccinated and less than 1% in South Africa, according to data New York Times . “We will not achieve public immunity as nations, states, even cities, until we have immunity in all populations,” Lauren Ancel Says Meyers, director of the Covid Modeling Organization, University of Texas. By focusing on vaccinating the most at-risk groups, the US has reduced its mortality rate compared to before. If vaccination rates continue to increase over time, the corona virus may become seasonal, similar to the flu. The biggest challenge facing health professionals is convincing people to vaccinate. Many Americans remain skeptical of the vaccine’s effectiveness. Another group lacked access to vaccines, such as homeless people, migrant workers, or certain communities of color. That makes the goal of achieving community immunity even more difficult. The mentality of the vast majority of people is that they want to see someone else embrace something, before they’re willing to try it. Emphasizing the benefits of vaccination may become more effective than the fictional idea of ​​herd immunity. “That will resonate with people more than the elusive concept that experts are still trying to come up with,” said Mary Politi, a specialist in health and health communication, University of Washington. Experts also recommend increasing vaccination rates for children, even babies. Because over time, if there aren’t enough people vaccinated, new strains can develop and disrupt the vaccine’s ability to protect itself.