Newsweek丨The domestically produced new crown drug is approved, how far are we from spring?
Bai Yansong: There are still more than ten days, and it will be over in 2021. We still can't accurately grasp what will be like in 2022, but what is certain is that at the beginning of 2022, we will continue to fight against the epidemic.
Since the beginning of winter, local epidemics have indeed been one after another. The last wave of epidemics in Manzhouli has not completely passed. The epidemic in Zhejiang has become the focus of attention this week. Shaoxing, Ningbo and Hangzhou have been reported in a total of 11 days. The number of cases is close to 421, and it is still running at a high level.
Zhejiang, which has been doing a good job in epidemic prevention, has suddenly "broken" this time?
Next, New Year's Day and the Spring Festival are coming, how will we celebrate the holiday in the process of fighting the epidemic?
China's first new crown special drug was approved, and it worked
After nearly a year of popularization, the proportion of people in my country who received the new crown vaccine during the whole process exceeded 82.5% last week.
However, the immune escape caused by virus mutation and the attenuation of vaccine effectiveness may slow down the process of herd immunity.
Fortunately, studies have confirmed that timely inoculation of booster shots can maintain the vaccine's neutralizing effect on Omi Keron and Delta strains.
Another insurance is that last week, the country's first new crown special drug was officially approved.
It has conducted phase III clinical trials in 110 medical institutions in six countries on four continents in accordance with international standards, and it has been proven that it can reduce hospitalization and mortality by 80%.
Liu Lei, Secretary of the Party Committee of Shenzhen Third People's Hospital: For example, there are a total of 20 provinces this time, and many cities have epidemics, and most of them basically use our antibodies.
After using it, the viral load dropped sharply, and within three days it quickly turned negative, and the immune system indicators quickly recovered.
On April 2 this year, the State Food and Drug Administration urgently approved that in the absence of specific medicines, the epidemic should be controlled and it can be used urgently.
According to reports, the drug has treated more than 800 patients for free during multiple rounds of domestic epidemics.
This medicine is composed of two kinds of antibodies, the method of use is the same as that of intravenous drip, and only one injection is required throughout the whole process.
These two antibodies were jointly developed by Shenzhen Third People's Hospital and Tsinghua University. They both have extensive experience in combating infectious diseases such as AIDS.
The new coronavirus invades the human body and needs to enter the cell through the spike protein to complete the infection. It is at this link that the antibody blocks it.
Professor Zhang Linqi, Tsinghua University School of Medicine: What I hold in my hand is actually a protein on the surface of a virus. The function of this protein is to open a lock on the cell.
Because the virus must be in the cell to replicate itself and produce offspring for generations.
How the antibody works is basically to block the surface, there is a way of fighting in groups, in this case, its key can't contact the lock at all.
On January 11, a year ago, at the beginning of the outbreak, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital admitted two confirmed couples with a history of living in Wuhan, and immediately began searching for antibodies to the virus.
Antibodies are an immunoglobulin that is produced by B cells in the blood.
After working in 24-hour shifts for multiple days, the hospital finally successfully isolated 206 monoclonal antibodies against the new coronavirus from the B cells of 8 recovered patients in less than a month.
Zhang Zheng, Director of the Research Institute of Shenzhen Third People's Hospital: The human B-cell bank is actually very large. The total number of neutralizing antibodies to the power of ten is screened out, which is tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack.
We had already foreseen that the virus might mutate in the future. In order to reduce the impact of this mutation, the measures we used in the past were to combine two or more kinds of antibodies to form a cocktail, and we picked two strains for their neutralizing activity. The best antibodies with completely different viral targets can play a role of 1+1 greater than 2.
Before a large number of high-efficiency antibodies are produced, it is an effective way to treat critically ill patients with recovered plasma.
However, due to individual differences, the antibodies produced by different recovered patients and the virus neutralization ability are not the same.
And neutralizing antibody drugs evade these problems.
After Zhang Zheng's team screened out the antibodies, Tsinghua University relayed it and formed a protein structure, which was finally produced by the pharmaceutical company Tengsheng Bo Yao.
At present, in addition to this drug, there are many other therapeutic drugs under development in China.
But they all face the same challenge: the latest Omi Keron is likely to escape the previous antibodies and invalidate the drug; and internationally, the price of a similar product of US$2,100 is even more difficult for many people to match.
Zhang Zheng, Director of the Research Institute of Shenzhen Third People’s Hospital: It’s very good that we also got a result recently, that is, our antibody combination. In fact, it still maintains a good neutralizing activity against Omi Keron. This virus will definitely be in the future. It is constantly changing, so we are constantly screening second-generation and even third-generation antibodies.
Liu Lei, Secretary of the Party Committee of Shenzhen Third People's Hospital: In recent years, our hospital has devoted itself to being a research hospital, and we have successively recruited a group of experts from China.
There are 94 P3 and P4 laboratories nationwide, and only two are built with hospitals.
Without this condition, we cannot do such a thing.
So it seems that all the preparations in our hospital seem to be for this epidemic.
Chinese New Year in situ should not be compulsory, normalized prevention and control requires "temperature"
In order to better prevent the epidemic and protect the safety and health of students, Dalian Maritime University opened school early on January 4 this year, and some students even stayed on campus for the New Year.
At the end of the year, the original plan was to have a winter vacation on January 10, 2022. However, considering that the recent epidemics in many places may cause students to stay again, the school decided to take the New Year's Day holiday in advance.
But this week, the Provincial Department of Education replied: Wait for the notice.
On Wednesday, the Dalian General Headquarters for Epidemic Prevention and Control issued a notice advocating the local Chinese New Year. On the same day, the Ministry of Education stated that it would “highlight the temperature of epidemic prevention and control measures” and “ensure the safe and orderly flow of teachers and students, healthy and safe holidays”. .
Han Junqiang, his wife and children are in Ningbo, and his hometown is in Shaanxi. The company is Zhenhai District where the epidemic is controlled.
On Tuesday, the General Office of Ningbo Municipal Government issued a notice encouraging employees of enterprises to celebrate the New Year on the spot.
Compared with the question of when to leave school encountered by Dalian Maritime University, Han Junqiang, as the head of the enterprise, has a clear attitude.
Han Junqiang, head of the steel structure company of Zhejiang No. 2 Construction Group Co., Ltd.: The year before last, the country cannot go home because of the outbreak of the epidemic. The country also advocates celebrating the New Year on the spot. As our business managers, we must set an example by ourselves, and then advocate workers not to go home.
Last year, the epidemic also continued. As for us, it happened that there was a major key project to tackle problems, so we took the initiative to stay in Ningbo and not go home.
Han Junqiang said that due to the high probability of the epidemic, he still cannot return to his hometown. He will not be able to reunite with his parents for three New Year's Eve.
Among the notices that Ningbo encourages employees to celebrate holidays on the spot, the most reposted report is the "retaining red envelopes". The subsidy standard is 100 yuan per person per day, and the maximum cumulative amount per person does not exceed 500 yuan. , Restricted to work in the first-line production positions of service companies and major project construction companies, and non-city registered employees who paid social insurance in Ningbo in December 2021".
Han Junqiang, person in charge of the Steel Structure Company of Zhejiang No. 2 Construction Group Co., Ltd.: If I insist on going home, I have to find ways to stay. For enterprises, this job is the most difficult to do in this respect.
We are business managers and we should not have this right to prohibit going home.
The most fundamental thing is to follow the policy guidance, as well as the needs of its own production, and more importantly, to obtain the consent of the employees.
Secondly and most importantly, the company pays a certain amount of costs and gives employees a certain amount of economic compensation.
Let the employees do not go home after production here, and pay something in return.
Zhang Hongmin, Director of the Rights Protection Department of the Ningbo Federation of Trade Unions: Right now happens to be the peak period for returning home, and you may be risky on the way back.
Then returning to your own hometown may bring risks to your hometown.
If you want to go home, it is best to be able to go home. This kind of thinking is also there.
The meaning of encouragement contains a kind of guidance, and then it is open, and it is not mandatory.
That is, you can stay in Ningbo for the New Year, or not in Ningbo for the New Year.
Video calls cannot replace reunions, but ensuring safety in the epidemic and reducing the flow of people is one of the most important epidemic prevention measures. People staying rely on solid material guarantees.
Behind the protection of people are the five more direct production incentive measures in this notice, including total output value rewards, fee reductions and tax reductions, rights protection, etc., as well as a certain amount of return for those migrant workers who really want to go home. Transportation subsidies in Ningbo.
Zhang Hongmin, Director of the Rights Protection Department of the Ningbo Federation of Trade Unions: Because Ningbo is now a big manufacturing city, according to statistics, up to now, people from other provinces who come to Ningbo account for 33.4% of our permanent residence in Ningbo.
In other words, one out of every three permanent residents of Ningbo will be a person from outside the province who came to our Ningbo, involving 3.14 million migrant workers.
This week or earlier, Yinchuan, Zhangjiakou, Pingxiang, Guangxi and other places have also issued similar notices for in-situ Chinese New Year. There are encouraging and advocacy notices such as Ningbo, and some stipulate that government departments and other personnel should celebrate the New Year in-situ, and some Emphasize that it is not necessary not to return to the place of household registration.
It's going or staying, it's the economic account, it's the current account of the mutated virus strain.
On December 11, a press conference held by the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism emphasized that the New Year’s Day and the Spring Festival are approaching, and the risk of spreading the epidemic will increase, requiring greater efforts in “scientific precision”.
Lu Hongzhou, a member of the Expert Committee of Disease Prevention and Control of the National Health Commission: If there are no new cases, then normal social life can be restored in this place.
However, we may have imported cases at any time because of the ports. These actions may be high-risk groups and regions.
We must also maintain a high degree of vigilance, so we should focus on the key points.
At present, we should concentrate on the port cities, which may be imported to these places in our country, including logistics and human flow. We must strictly implement epidemic prevention and control. Then we in the Mainland can be more normalized. Relatively speaking, the pressure of epidemic prevention and control is only Will fall.
Port cities are the first hurdle for foreign defense, and the three-industry linkage needs to be faster and more precise
Last Friday, the news was released at the press conference on epidemic prevention and control in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, and citizens should report to their communities immediately if they find the health code has changed color.
From then to today, Yao Xiaoli can't remember how many calls each day.
There are nearly 8,000 residents in the Dongjia community where she lives, and more than 600 people have reported the discoloration of the health code to a social work team of less than 10 people.
Yao Xiaoli, a social worker in Dongjia Community, Zhalongkou Street, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province: The amount of data varies from day to day. Basically, from the outbreak, there are at least hundreds of phone calls and interviews every day.
It may be that there is a problem with the place of work, such as passing through the risk area near Dongfang Haosheng, etc., it will also turn into yellow codes. The reasons for the yellow codes are different, so you need to investigate carefully.
Community resident Ms. Fan: Because I happened to be at home when I was resting, and thinking that I didn’t go anywhere at home, why did it become a yellow code?
Panic is not panic, it feels inexplicable.
The company registered for a while and went home, went home to the community to register, and then went for a nucleic acid test.
During this period, the sub-district will issue a list of assistance checks to the Dongjia community every day. These lists are based on big data analysis.
In fact, the discoloration of the health code affects the daily life and travel of residents, and social workers need to investigate one by one to help people who do not meet the conditions for close contact as soon as possible to restore the green code.
Xia Shichang, deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Health Commission: We have adjusted this work, and the three-industry linkage should be faster and more precise to do this work.
After the data is studied and judged, the epidemiological judgment is quickly carried out.
In this way, people who are really at risk are turned into red codes, and those who are really potentially at risk are judged as yellow codes.
It's not just how many people within a base station are, they are all time and space companions.
The production of a large number of red codes and yellow codes is also not conducive to the people's normal production, life, work and study.
In the current round of the epidemic in Zhejiang Province, Ningbo, Shaoxing, and Hangzhou have become the eyes of the storm.
As of Friday, December 17 in Japan, a total of 421 confirmed cases have been reported in the three places in more than 10 consecutive days of statistics.
After tracing the source, the virus genome sequence of the Zhejiang case and the Shanghai and Jiangsu cases are highly homologous, which is the same related epidemic.
It is still spreading rapidly, it is still a feature of aggregation, and it is still a "delta" mutant strain.
Among the three places in Zhejiang, Shaoxing is the most serious. There are currently 329 confirmed cases, which exceeds the total number of confirmed cases in Ningbo and Hangzhou.
Xia Shichang, deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Health Commission: Because of the late implementation of the previous control measures in Shangyu, too few people should be quarantined.
Since December 11, the control has become stronger and stronger. Even for people who are isolated at home, the control measures are very strict.
Controlling the source of infection and cutting off the transmission route is a good aspect.
The analysis of each case revealed that most of their infection time was before the ban, which was before December 11.
The total number of people infected after the 12th is only 7 people.
We think that by the 20th or so, the cases in the community will be basically cleared, and all cases will be basically controlled. Our expert group researched and judged that it might be around the end of the month.
Facing the current round of the epidemic, Zhejiang proposed to ensure that the epidemic does not overflow, reduce the total amount, and clear it early.
On Monday, December 13 in Japan, the province’s epidemic situation conference stated that personnel in Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou, Zhenhai District, Ningbo, and Shangyu District, Shaoxing should be strictly controlled to leave the province by rail.
Persons from Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Shaoxing from other counties and cities outside the province must hold a certificate of negative nucleic acid test within 48 hours.
Traveling to areas with medium and high risks is required to extend the implementation time until March 15 next year.
Xia Shichang, deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Health Commission: The purpose of this is to hope that where there is an epidemic, the epidemic will not overflow, so that there will not be an epidemic in one place, and it will cause an epidemic in other places.
In this case, the epidemic prevention and control work will have a greater impact. Staying in the local area for the New Year must be based on actual conditions. Where there is no epidemic, relatively loose policies should be adopted.
Where there is an epidemic, stricter measures must be adopted.
In fact, the recent local clusters of cases in my country have been imported from overseas epidemics through port cities.
In some places, the untimely monitoring of the epidemic situation, the inadequate closed-loop management of high-risk personnel, and the improper management of centralized isolation sites have caused many port cities to "break the defense."
In the context of the continuous spread of the global epidemic, and recently imported cases of Omi Keron have been found in Tianjin and Guangzhou.
At the end of the year, as the first checkpoint for foreign defense imports, port cities are still the top priority to improve their epidemic prevention capabilities.
Lu Hongzhou, member of the National Health Commission’s Disease Prevention and Control Expert Committee: Since the end of the Wuhan epidemic last year, all these clusters of cases are all related to imported cases.
Regardless of whether the imported cases are through the cold chain, the port, or the situation of nosocomial infection.
All of these have revealed that we have some loopholes in the prevention and control of the epidemic. When the global epidemic is not well controlled and we have not achieved herd immunity, once imported cases appear, we will have clusters of cases. So at the moment Port cities still have to adopt such stricter protective measures.
Bai Yansong: At the end of this year, facing the epidemic, it is indeed good news and bad news.
The bad news is that the epidemic is still by our side, and the emergence of Omi Keron has made the epidemic more complicated. This Wednesday, a WHO official said: At present, 77 countries and regions have reported Omi Kejon. The number of infections with the Rong strain is still increasing.
The good news is that this WHO official also said that with the existing anti-epidemic tools and testing methods, the world is very hopeful that the pandemic of the new crown epidemic will be ended in 2022.
Now we may be in the darkest hour before dawn, but we can already feel the light of this deep tunnel. I hope that next year, the entire human race will be liberated from the epidemic.