China News Agency, Moscow, March 5th: China's experience in the next few weeks may be a critical period for global epidemic prevention

China News Agency reporter Wang Xiujun

With the spread of the new crown virus epidemic in many countries, Russian experts recently said that in the next few weeks or the critical period of global anti-epidemic, all countries can unite to defeat the epidemic. China's anti-epidemic experience has proven to be effective and worthy of reference.

Chinese experience proved effective

Russian National Epidemic Prevention Officer Popova said that Russia closely follows the measures taken by China every day. Thanks to the joint efforts of the Chinese government and people, the spread of the epidemic has been contained and the number of cures has been increasing. Russia highly appreciates it. Russia and China are partners. Russia has learned valuable experience from China's fight against epidemics. Practice has proved that the measures taken by China are very effective.

Konstantinovich, editor-in-chief of the authoritative Russian academic journal "Research on Virology" said, "We have noticed that the current epidemic situation in China has been reduced and the number of new infections has been declining, which shows that the measures taken by the Chinese government are effective. For the countries of the world, the next few weeks are very important, a crucial period to stop the epidemic from spreading globally. China has accumulated rich experience in stopping the spread of the epidemic, and other countries may learn from it.

Winnya Minovich, director of the Russian National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, believes that the measures adopted by China during the epidemic were rapid and strict. These measures are unprecedented and set an example for other countries to tackle infectious diseases.

Russian biologist and Associate Professor of Skolkovo School of Science and Technology, Gbazikin, said that the number of basic infections in China at the beginning of the outbreak was 2.5-3, which indicates that an infected person will infect 2.5 to 3 people on average . But this number has since dropped to less than 1. The measures China has taken are very effective.

It takes time for vaccines to come out

Konstantinovic said that we noticed that some countries, including Russia, have developed vaccine prototypes. As usual, validation of vaccines takes a long time. No country can market a new vaccine in a short time. Therefore, cutting off the flow of virus between hosts is still an effective means to prevent the spread of the virus.

Winnya Minovich said the virus usually decays faster than vaccines can be developed. The vaccines developed need animal experiments and then clinical experiments, which will take a long time. But developing vaccines can prevent a recurrence of the outbreak.

Bazikin said the development of the vaccine is a lengthy process that will take at least several months and will require the necessary clinical trials. But you don't need to worry about the effects of virus mutations. The virus in patients is currently only about two percent different from the virus gene originally discovered. This is a very small change and will not affect vaccine development and production.

Global cooperation to respond to the outbreak

Konstantinovic said the speed of the epidemic had been "surprising" despite the warnings previously issued by the World Health Organization. With the increase of epidemic countries, the difficulty of prevention and control in other countries is also increasing. The new crown virus epidemic is no longer a matter for one country, but a problem that all countries must face. Only by cooperating closely with other countries can the epidemic be contained.

Anna Stacia, a senior researcher at the Far East Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said: We have noticed that China is open to cooperating with the world to respond to the epidemic. From the early provision of the New Coronavirus gene sequence to the world to the current delivery of support materials to other countries, it reflects China's attitude. At present, Russia and China have cooperated closely. I believe that other countries can also cooperate with China to deal with the epidemic. This cooperation can be in the area of ​​scientific research or in the exchange of information and experience. (Finish)