What scientific news in 2021?
Eradicating polio: one of the challenges the WHO has set for itself in 2021 (illustration image) © Hindustan Times via Getty Images - Hindustan Times
Text by: Simon Rozé Follow
4 min
2020 has been a very busy year for the laboratories.
There is of course research against Covid-19 and the development of a vaccine in less than 10 months, but not only: astronomy, archeology, physics have had their share of discoveries.
If it is difficult to anticipate future discoveries, some events are however already registered in the calendars.
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The battle continues to end polio
What if 2021 marks a major milestone in polio eradication?
The information had gone a little unnoticed last August:
the WHO (World Health Organization) declared that Africa had overcome the wild polio virus
.
It is a mainly childhood disease, which can lead to total paralysis, sometimes to death.
In 1988, the international community decided to launch a program to eradicate the disease with a target set for the year 2000. It has not been reached but it is on track.
There are only two countries left where the virus is circulating today: Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"
The most important thing is that our on-site program no longer passes by villages or houses during vaccination campaigns
," explains Hamid Jafari, director of the polio eradication program for the eastern Mediterranean region of WHO.
So I hope that in 2021, we can really step up a gear to stop transmissions.
However, this will not be enough to eradicate the virus as early as next year.
It takes officially three years without a new case declared to be able to make such an announcement.
Pakistan and Afghanistan experienced 139 in 2020.
It should also be noted that this is wild polio.
There is indeed another strain, called vaccine.
Less virulent, however, it still circulates in 25 countries, particularly in Africa, the Middle East and Indonesia, with just over 600 recorded cases.
It can be compared to a residual phenomenon, which must however be treated just like the wild virus.
A new vaccine specifically designed to deal with this strain has thus been developed.
WHO recommended last month that it be used urgently to overcome the disease.
Polio would then join smallpox and rinderpest in the history books.
Second mission for Thomas Pesquet
After Proxima in 2016, Alpha in 2021, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet will be going aboard the International Space Station for a second time with a
take-off scheduled for spring from Cape Canaveral in the United States
.
This time, no Russian Soyuz to fly into space, but a Falcon 9 rocket and a Dragon capsule from SpaceX.
“
We can see the differences in heritage
,” explains Thomas Pesquet.
The Soyuz has been flying for forty years, it has had 200 flights in a row without problems.
There is a confidence that allows you to always do things the same way.
With SpaceX, it's new.
We are still discovering a little bit.
We don't have the same statistics as the Russians.
We therefore tend to calculate a lot, analyze a lot.
We can see it on the launch conditions for example: for the weather, if there is a little wind at Cape Canaveral, we interrupt the launch, we are very careful.
The Russians, they throw in the blizzard and that does not pose a problem for them!
".
This will only be the second time that this Dragon capsule has sent astronauts into space for relief aboard the Station.
The third will take place this fall with another European on board: the German Matthias Maurer.
He will discover space on this occasion and if all goes well, Thomas Pesquet and he could well have a few weeks in common in orbit.
The last time two European astronauts flew together was in 2008.
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Read also: Polio is eradicated in Africa, says WHO
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