Wu Zunyou, an epidemic prevention and control expert known for his "dare"
Wu Zunyou
Chief Expert of Epidemiology, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Former director of the China Center for Disease Control and STD AIDS Prevention and Control.
In 2003, he participated in the prevention and treatment of SARS. In mid-January of this year, he began to participate in the prevention and treatment of pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus.
He has won a number of awards and honors from the Chinese government, as well as the UNAIDS Gold Medal and the Rolleston Award from the International Drug Society.
Every day from 12 to 13 noon, lunch time, and at this time, Wu Zunyou, chief expert in epidemiology at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (hereinafter referred to as "CDC"), is also doing one thing unmovedly: auditing colleagues sent His "Analysis of the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic" report (hereinafter referred to as "Analysis Report").
Only after his approval can it be submitted to relevant leaders and departments.
57-year-old Wu Zunyou is of medium height, with thick and straight hair and a little white hair on the temples.
Wearing a light blue long-sleeved shirt and tucked the hem into the waist of black trousers.
On June 11, after the first local case was diagnosed in Beijing, he frequently appeared on the scene of various media conferences. His judgment at key points can always bring confidence and peace of mind to the society.
Wu Zunyou told the Beijing News reporter that his most important task at the moment is to sort out and summarize my country’s experience in the prevention and control of new coronary pneumonia in the past eight months, and to review the occurrence, development, control and rebound of the epidemic in the world as a whole and other countries. Technical preparations for the possible new crown epidemic situation in winter.
"Quite a lot of confidence"
June 18, the eighth day when the first local case was confirmed in a new outbreak in Beijing.
Three days ago, according to CDC's arrangements, Wu Zunyou led a team of 11 multidisciplinary experts to Beijing CDC.
Form a joint working group with Beijing disease control experts to carry out the virus transmission mechanism and traceability of the newly developed market.
At the 125th press conference on the prevention and control of the new coronavirus pneumonia in Beijing held that day, a reporter asked Wu Zunyou, "Three days ago, you said in an interview with the media that the trend of the epidemic in the next three days will be determined. The epidemic in Beijing. Now three days have passed. From the current situation, what is the current situation in Beijing?"
Wu Zunyou, who was sitting on the rostrum of the venue, could not hide his smile even though he was wearing a mask.
Wu Zunyou's answer is: "I can tell you clearly: the Beijing epidemic has been brought under control!"
Shocked four people.
Wu Zunyou also entered the field of vision of more people's attention.
A person familiar with the matter said that not only the outside world, but also in internal discussions, some experts also expressed doubts about Wu Zunyou's optimism and believed that a second wave of epidemic peaks might occur.
Other unsigned experts publicly stated that Wu Zunyou's judgment was too hasty.
Wu Zunyou revealed that he was actually worried that the situation in Beijing would be the same as that in Wuhan and New York.
The reason why I dared to answer "Beijing epidemic has been brought under control" later was because of "precise analysis and judgment of Beijing epidemic data and implementation of prevention and control measures."
This is related to the work Wu Zunyou has to do every day, which is the "analysis report" sent to him by his colleagues every day for review.
This analysis report contains the date of onset and diagnosis of all cases, and he can also construct a third time point based on the average incubation period of the new crown, which is the time when the case may be infected.
Therefore, he judged that "the epidemic has been brought under control" based on the characteristics of the epidemic reflected at the three time points and the epidemic stage reflected by the proportion of "asymptomatic infected persons" shown in nucleic acid screening.
Li Chao, a colleague of Wu Zunyou, told the Beijing News that "On the basis of comprehensive information from all aspects, combined with epidemiological professional judgment, Director Wu can draw conclusions one by one."
From June 19th to 27th, the number of new local cases in Beijing stayed at the "single digits" after repeated between single and double digits for a week.
Since July 6, "zero growth" has been achieved.
Some netizens said to Wu Zunyou's characteristic of "dare to speak", "Dare to speak and analyze when it is time for you to speak. It is beneficial to everyone and the control of the Beijing epidemic."
This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day are 8 days long holiday.
Whether you can travel with confidence has become a topic of concern to many people.
On September 8th, Wu Zunyou gave the public a "reassurance pill" through CCTV's "News 1+1": The places where the new crown virus exists in our country are mainly among patients in isolation or hospitalization, and in (related) laboratories. There is no virus at the social level.
From the perspective of the prevention and control of new crown pneumonia, there should be nothing special to be vigilant about traveling to various parts of the country on the National Day.
"Suggestion was accepted, very fulfilling"
On August 15, some areas of Xinfadi Market resumed.
After the outbreak of the epidemic on June 11, the Xinfadi market was temporarily closed.
The nearby cold storage was therefore sealed.
There are tens of thousands of tons of frozen meat and aquatic products in one of the cold storages.
Prior to this, the staff had conducted a round of nucleic acid screening, all of which were negative, and collected more than 3,000 environmental samples from the goods, packaging and environment of the cold storage, and the nucleic acid test results were all negative.
After these advance preparations, everything should be ready for market resumption.
After the relevant departments organize experts to conduct demonstrations, they hope to put the cold storage goods on the market.
Wu Zunyou discovered that a third-party inspection service organization was responsible for the cold storage inspection task.
"The outbreaks in Beijing and Dalian both indicate that the contamination of frozen goods or outer packaging may cause the new crown epidemic. The results of cold storage products and environmental nucleic acid test are of great importance. The test results of only a third-party testing service company make people worry."
Therefore, Wu Zunyou did not agree to the scheduled plan for the resumption of the cold storage market, and proposed to ask the local disease control department to conduct a sample review and inspection of some frozen products in the cold storage. He suggested that only the frozen products imported after March should be sampled and reviewed. "Because the global epidemic is It only became popular after March."
The relevant departments adopted his suggestion.
As a result of the re-examination, nucleic acid-positive samples were detected in several tons of aquatic products imported from individual Asian countries.
"Because of my persistence, I avoided the risk of a new crown pneumonia epidemic that may be caused by aquatic product contamination. Such a job is very meaningful." Wu Zunyou said, this is the most important thing he has done since the new crown epidemic, and it also allows him to "One thing that feels very gratifying."
He made correct judgments based on the comprehensive analysis of his professional knowledge and previous work experience.
"As a technical expert, your suggestion was adopted and played a role in ensuring the safety of Beijing, which made me feel very fulfilled."
"Break the ice" time and time again in AIDS prevention and treatment
Before January this year, Wu Zunyou's work was mainly to carry out AIDS prevention and treatment.
In 1988, Wu Zunyou worked at the Anhui Epidemic Prevention Station (the predecessor of Anhui Disease Control) after graduating with a master's degree.
That was the fourth year that AIDS was diagnosed in China.
Wu Zunyou, who has studied epidemiology for 8 years, feels that AIDS will be a serious public health problem in the future.
At that time, the National Institutes of Health had a training program and planned to recruit a student from China.
Wu Zunyou stood out.
In 1991, he began his Ph.D. study at the University of California, Los Angeles, with a focus on AIDS prevention and treatment.
In 1995, Wu Zunyou returned to China with a doctorate in epidemiology.
At the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine (predecessor of CDC), he became a postdoctoral fellow of the then Dean of Academician Zeng Yi.
At that time, AIDS appeared to spread in the country.
According to a report issued by the Department of Disease Control of the former Ministry of Health, 70% of HIV-infected people in my country were infected by sharing needles for intravenous drug use.
Wu Zunyou’s team found out that most drug addicts are infected with AIDS due to sharing a needle for drug use.
Wu Zunyou thought of some ways to allow drug users to easily obtain clean needles even in the middle of the night.
He also became the first domestic epidemiologist to try to provide drug addicts with clean needles.
Wu Zunyou also proposed emergency measures to cut off the blood transmission of AIDS, so as to avoid the possibility of a large number of blood donors being infected with AIDS.
In 1997, Wu Zunyou organized my country's first high-risk group intervention seminar.
"This is an ice-breaking operation. It is the first time that China has put forward AIDS prevention and control measures to control special populations in public."
Wu Zunyou recalled that issues such as condom distribution, prevention of sexual transmission, prevention of transmission among drug addicts, and how to carry out HIV prevention work among homosexuals were all put forward in this seminar.
At that time, the relevant AIDS prevention and control policies were not in place, and there was a large gap in the society's understanding of AIDS.
"It was the most difficult time in my career so far."
Wu Zunyou said that in his AIDS prevention and control work, there are many examples that give him a sense of accomplishment.
For example, optimizing the diagnosis and treatment procedures for AIDS patients is called "one-stop service". When piloting in the Guangxi demonstration zone, he and his team members reduced the time from diagnosis to treatment from the original two or three months to ten days Or so, it only takes an average of ten days from the initial positive screening to the application of anti-disease drugs.
The case fatality rate of newly diagnosed patients within one year was reduced by 50%-60%.
Since then, this measure has become a national prevention and control policy to be promoted across the country, enabling more people living with AIDS to benefit from it.
Among Wu Zunyou's past positions, there is also a "Director of the Secretariat of the National Working Group on Methadone Maintenance Treatment."
The main job of this post is to promote the methadone maintenance therapy that has been used in many countries around the world in the 1960s. This therapy is considered to be one of the effective methods to control the AIDS epidemic among drug users.
Due to the promotion of methadone maintenance therapy, in 2006 alone, the number of methadone outpatient clinics nationwide increased from less than 60 to 320, and the number of patients treated increased from less than 5,000 to 46,000.
After more than ten years of persistence, the AIDS epidemic among drug users in my country has been basically controlled.
Exercise is a source of happiness
Many interviewees said that Wu Zunyou, as a high-status expert in the field of epidemiology, does things by himself and is humble.
On June 24, Wu Zunyou led two young colleagues, Zhao Jing and Li Chao, to an isolation point in Chaoyang District to conduct circulation.
It was a particularly hot afternoon.
They sweated for a while while wearing protective clothing.
When Wu Zunyou came out, Zhao Jing found him as if he had been soaked in water.
Zhao Jing introduced that Wu Zunyou visited three key cases who had just been discharged from the hospital to the isolation point for rehabilitation and observation that afternoon. Each case required an interview for about one hour.
Although they are very clear about the relationship between the cases, they are still afraid of missing information.
Therefore, Wu Zunyou asked in detail about the relevant information of the three cases, such as what goods are sold, what channels are purchased, whether the purchase channels have been changed, "even as detailed as which elevator they usually ride in" etc. .
This surprised Li Chao. He originally thought that this kind of work would be left to them.
"Wu Zunyou is a great expert, but he still insists on going to the scene and doing it himself. This is not easy."
Li Chao introduced that after the Wuhan epidemic, he and his colleagues took over a research topic related to the epidemic. In the process of writing the project bid, Wu Zunyou would sit down with them and make a little revision together.
In Wu Zunyou's opinion, this is the ingenuity he should possess as a technical expert.
Because he must be meticulous and simple before transforming these research results into a paper or communication material, so that these experiences can be better "repeated", and he must be able to modify it verbatim, and even "correct the reference Refer to the original text, magazine name, page number, punctuation, etc. to verify."
Outside of work, Wu Zunyou insists on exercising.
For example, he loves to play badminton, which is an exercise activity he completes regularly every week. Even if he has just returned to Beijing on an international flight, he does not suffer jet lag and goes to the venue to play badminton.
A friend of Wu Zunyou told the Beijing News reporter that Wu Zunyou is not like other people in playing badminton and aims to win.
He is for physical exercise. He doesn't think about skills when he plays. He must catch the ball when he is playing. This is for the purpose of exercise.
Wu Zunyou also admitted that exercise is one of the important sources of happiness for him. "When I exercise, I feel very happy and full of energy."
Therefore, Wu Zunyou insisted on exercising both when he went to the United States to study or when he returned to work.
As a college roommate, Zhang Chengye, deputy dean of the School of Public Health of Anhui Medical University, told the Beijing News that Wu Zunyou was not top-notch academic performance when he was in school, but he was persistent in both life and study.
This made him admire.
Wu Zunyou also caught up with the trend. They bought and wore the flare pants that were just fashionable in the 1980s.
Craftsman's Words
1 How do you show your ingenuity in your work?
Wu Zunyou: My understanding is to make things detailed and complete.
For example, when we are working on the prevention and control of the new crown epidemic, only by explaining each requirement sufficiently specific can the grassroots staff do the work well in practice.
When summing up the experience after finishing, write enough detailed and specific in order to promote the successful experience.
2 In your life and work, what have you always adhered to?
Wu Zunyou: I have always insisted on exercising in life.
At work, I insist on studying.
When I returned from my Ph.D. degree in the United States, I felt relieved. I felt that I had finished studying all my life, but when I returned to my country and started working, I found that real learning only began.
3 When is the hardest time for you, and what is the reason for persisting?
Wu Zunyou: The most difficult thing is when doing AIDS prevention and control work.
Because most people infected with AIDS are special people.
In the 1990s, drug abuse, homosexuality, and prostitution were all very sensitive terms. These groups themselves were also subject to different opinions from the society. To do a good job in the prevention and treatment of AIDS for this group of people requires policy support, but no relevant policies were issued at that time. It is very difficult to carry out the work.
The motivation for persistence was the protection and support given to me by the leadership at that time.
They told me that doing this work is not for the individual, but for the benefit of the country and the people.
4 What do you hope to achieve in the future, and what are your expectations for the future?
Wu Zunyou: Our country still lacks public health talents, especially those who have certain professional skills and practical experience.
I am very fortunate. I have received relatively good theoretical studies and some practical experience. I am also familiar with domestic and international situations.
Therefore, I hope that before retirement, I will try my best to cultivate more talents in this field.
I have trained more than 100 master's and doctoral students, and I expect them to do better than me and contribute a little to the country and the people.
5 What do you think is the greatest happiness you have?
Wu Zunyou: In life, sports dispel my worries and unhappiness.
I feel happy and energetic when I exercise and sweat.
At work, what I do is beneficial to the people and the society. I feel very happy at this time.
This happiness cannot be replaced with money or other honors.
Also, discussing scientific issues with students or young people, seeing their students grow up and becoming useful to society, is happier than what they have achieved.
Ingenuity
What I do is good for the people and the society. I will feel very happy at this time.
This happiness cannot be replaced with money or other honors.
Beijing News reporter Xiao Longping, intern Gong Zhengyang