Home Science When science breaks all the boundaries you – the enemy

When science breaks all the boundaries you – the enemy

0

More than a year since the first case was discovered in China, COVID-19 has spread globally, causing more than 123 million people to become infected with the virus, and more than 2.7 million to die. Pandemic also causes enormous economic damage to countries on all continents.
The “Economist” called the pandemic one of the four biggest economic shocks of the 21st century, dragging back decades of human development. One of the glimmering lights to appear at a dark time in history is the optimistic result of a series of vaccines against COVID-19. These special “goods” are considered the weapons of humanity to defeat the pandemic. Behind the miracle of these miraculous products, is the day and night’s hard work of a team of researchers and scientists all over the world, all towards the urgent goal: to save the human race. get out of the pandemic.

While countries in turn closed their borders, scientists have broken their own borders, creating a global collaboration unlike anything that has happened in history. Never before have so many experts in many countries focused on a single topic and with such urgency, the researchers said. Nearly all other studies have to be halted. Within a few months, all of the global science was almost “COVIDed”. Photo: LG In a survey of 2,500 researchers in the US, Canada and Europe, Kyle Myers from Harvard and his team found that 32% turned their focus to pandemic. Neuroscientists studying olfaction are beginning to understand why patients with COVID-19 tend to lose their sense of smell. Physicists set out to create predictive models that inform policy-makers. Michael DL Johnson at the University of Arizona often studies copper’s toxic effects on bacteria. But knowing that nCoV existed on the copper surface for less time than other materials, he turned to investigating how vulnerable the virus might be to the metal. No disease has been so scrutinized by so many combined intelligence in such a short time. As of February 2021, the PubMed Biomedical Library listed more than 74,000 nCoV-related scientific articles – more than double those of articles on polio, measles, cholera, dengue, or other diseases. another has inflicted on mankind for centuries. Only 9,700 articles related to Ebola have been published since it was discovered in 1976. By September 2020, the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine received 30,000 nCoV-related articles – many 16,000 more than all of 2019. “All that difference is COVID-19,” said Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine. “This is an unprecedented shift in scientific priorities,” said Francis Collins, director of the US National Institutes of Health. In addition, online archives are readily available to provide research data and evidence before periodic scientific journals. Scientists identify and share dozens of viral genome sequences. More than 200 clinical trials have been launched, bringing together hospitals, laboratories and hundreds of thousands of volunteers globally. Speaking in The New York Times, Dr. Francesco Perrone, who leads a clinical trial of nCoV in Italy, said: “I have never heard genuine and excellent scientists talk about nationality. mine, your country. My language, your language. My geographic location, your geographic location. This is really far from true senior scientists. Photo: LG The New York Times revealed that one morning, University of Pittsburgh scientists discovered a weasel after exposure to COVID-19 particles developed a high fever. This is a potential step forward for vaccine testing in animals. Under normal circumstances, they would begin to review the research results with an article in an academic journal. But Professor Paul Duprex, the university’s lead virologist, shared the results with scientists around the world in just two hours, instead of spending months on an article. . A small measure of openness can be found on the servers of medRxiv and bioRxiv, two online archives that share academic data before it is published in journals. The archives are filled with thousands of coronavirus studies around the globe. Chinese researchers have contributed a considerable part to the nCoV research in this treasure. A Chinese lab announced the original virus genome in January, providing the basis for nCoV tests worldwide. Thanks to this initial genetic data, the world’s leading research institutions have based and supplemented the evidence, thereby successfully testing vaccine products with a preventive effect of up to 90% – 95%, in a time of unprecedented speed in history. By November, more than 197,000 nCoV genomes had been sequenced. Lauren Gardner, an engineering professor at Johns Hopkins University who has studied dengue and Zika, knows that the new diseases will come with a scarcity of real-time data. So she and her students created a global online map to count all COVID-19 cases and deaths. After one night’s work, they launched it on January 22. / 2020. Since then, the dashboard has been accessed daily by governments, public health agencies, the media and anxious global citizens. One of the foe-to-friend partnerships mentioned is a joint production cooperation agreement between US pharmaceutical firm J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine and leading rival Merck in March 2021. Emphasizing that the US is in a state of “national emergency” and it is time to act “drastically and boldly”, the two rivals have begun to speed up the production of vaccines, aiming to supply the country. 200 million doses in 2021, bringing America to community immunity. Photo: LG From Asia to Europe, Africa to the Americas, despite the differences in politics, culture, ethnicity, language … scientists share, cooperate, seek all vaccine solutions and remedy against viruses. Even though large, proprietary research may lead to sponsorship, promotion and reputation, scientists have left behind secret ways of working, hoarding data from competitors, to together find the light at the end of the tunnel to save all of humanity. These efforts have paid off. New diagnostic tests can detect the virus within minutes. Huge open datasets on the viral genome and cases of COVID-19 give the most detailed picture of the evolution of a disease that has never appeared in history. Along with the new discoveries revolving around, humankind is prepared with an abundance of scientific resources to be ready for the face of future pandemic. In particular, if no one dared to say anything for sure in March 2020, the positive results of a series of vaccines plus successful antiviral drug antibodies would have brought people to life. closer to the prospect of ending the pandemic. A series of countries launch a campaign to vaccinate hundreds of millions of people by 2021, with the aim of achieving the earliest community immunity, to bring the entire country back to normal as before. Borders will reopen, and laboratories and research facilities around the globe will revive again, and continue to seek solutions that will push humanity toward the future. That is the unchanging mission of science, in any historical moment.

NO COMMENTS