Zhang Wenhong mentioned that the research data published by his team shows that the new crown vaccine has a significant protective effect on the elderly, and the serious rate of elderly patients with new crown is relatively high, but after vaccination, the ability to protect the this group of people is improving a lot.
At the 2022 Medical Virology Conference of the Chinese Medical Association held on December 3, Zhang Wenhong, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases of the National Center for Infectious Diseases and Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, said with the new changes in the new. crown virus, currently there are new The clinical features of the disease, and the whole epidemic prevention model is gradually changing. At the moment, protecting vulnerable groups such as the elderly, especially those with underlying and chronic diseases, is the key point for us to get out of the epidemic.
Zhang Wenhong, from a clinical point of view, from March and April 2020, his team believed that the spread of the new coronavirus would not stop in June of that year, this was mainly judged from the characteristics of virus expansion. new crown patients, it was found that the evolution of the new crown virus is very fast, but what drives the virus to continue to evolve, this issue has also provoked a fierce debate among many scientists.
“The new coronavirus starts from the original strain and evolves into Alpha, Beta, and Delta after mutation. Each wave of evolution is very fast, and the latter can quickly replace the former. However, after vaccination, we have no virus in patients. Scientific monitoring has found that the mutation of the virus has converged. At present, the mutation of the virus is limited to the Omicron family. Although the evolution of the virus is random and has no direction, after repeated vaccination or infection, the human body will have immunity against the virus Mutations of the
Zhang Wenhong believes that the direction of virus evolution is to break through the pressure brought by human immunity, so it will mutate in the direction of faster and faster transmission, so that the genes can be transferred and spread, but through vaccination or infection again and again. continues to put pressure on the virus, which will make it very difficult for all viruses to mutate, and the amount of mutations also decreases, and each mutation seems to jump out of the gap. But we know that biological evolution is limited. In the field of virus transmission, the speed of virus transmission is currently impossible to exceed the speed of lightning. Currently, the direction of Omicron’s evolution is limited, and it is unlikely that there will be a leap forward evolution within 2-3 months. The leap forward evolution requires genetic recombination.
“From the current point of view, although Omicron has many subtypes, its jump evolution seems extremely difficult, because the R0 value (R0 value in the spread index, the higher the R0, the faster it is’ r spread) has reached a maximum of 18 At the moment, only the R0 value of measles has reached the level of 12-18.” Zhang Wenhong said bluntly,The spread of the virus is increasingly limited through vaccinations, treatments, and especially vaccinations.
Zhang Wenhong, during the Shanghai Great Defense War, mentioned,The research data published by his team shows that the new crown vaccine has a significant protective effect on the elderly, and the serious rate of elderly patients with new crown is relatively high, but after vaccination, the ability to protect this group of people is big. get betterIn addition to elderly patients, there are also dialysis patients, heart disease patients, etc. who also belong to the group of serious patients with new crowns. Metabolic diseases, chronic kidney disease, long-term bed rest, and tumor patients are all “vulnerable factors” for the severity of new crown patients.
“Among the vulnerable population, 10% are seriously ill due to the new crown, and 90% are seriously ill due to underlying diseases. Together the two serious illnesses form the spectrum of serious new crown disease. This makes our treatment ideas for the future more and more clear With some medical resources running out, the death rate caused by Omicron will increase, especially the death rate of the elderly will increase.Therefore, it is very important to protect vulnerable groups such as the elderly and those with underlying diseases.” Zhang Wenhong said.
Premier Sun Chunlan recently held a symposium to listen to opinions and suggestions on prevention and control, and he talked about “taking small steps without stopping” many times. In this regard, Zhang Wenhong believes that “taking small steps” means providing adequate protection for vulnerable groups. Singapore is very careful in implementing protection for vulnerable groups. all aspects very sufficient, reaching more than 90%% of the 7-day cause deaths. the rate is now very low, and the proportion among the vaccinated population is only 0.02%.Therefore, the key to getting out of the epidemic is to protect vulnerable groups, and protecting immunity is a major focus.
But Zhang Wenhong also mentioned the problem of immune escape, that is, infection still occurs after vaccination. Regarding how to improve the effectiveness of the vaccine, Zhang Wenhong suggested that heterologous vaccination should be chosen when vaccinating the third booster. In addition, he also called for a fourth dose of vaccination in the future.
He said, in the end, whether we can establish a population immunity barrier through immunization, some countries in the world have already shown this feature. The same is true of the Shanghai epidemic experience Repeated vaccination and natural infections will continue to provide us with an immune barrier and immune pressure, which will continuously reduce the toxicity of the virus.
In terms of clinical treatment, Zhang Wenhong suggested that medication should be taken in the early stage of viral infection. “The real world in the world now tells us that in the early stages, if the drug is taken on time and within 5 days, the rate of serious disease in the vulnerable population can be reduced by about 90%. Taking (drugs) can be significant. reduce the rate of severe disease.”
Finally Zhang Wenhong pointed out that we have been fighting viruses in the past. There is a saying in the field of disease control that we must race against and chase viruses. This is a competition between human beings. to eliminate viruses and spread viruses. But today I can tell you,Through vaccination and drug treatment, we have entered the stage of virus domestication and control.Depending on our scientific and technological capabilities, the control of the virus epidemic in the future may not be to clear the nucleic acid, but to reduce the proportion of symptoms or serious cases to a very low level. I believe humans can achieve the taming of the new coronavirus in the future, and the future will definitely be better.
Author: Chen Sisi, source: The Paper, original title: “Zhang Wenhong: Providing adequate protection for vulnerable groups is the key to get out of the new crown epidemic.”
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