Global Health Asia-Pacific July 2020 July 2020 | Page 64

Vaccine
Science might not know a lot about
COVID-19, but that’s not holding
back the researchers
Research into testing, preventive therapies, and vaccines making headway as the world emerges from lockdown
Government health officials around the world
have been single-minded in stressing �the
science� at every opportunity since the
outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. At news
conferences, it’s common to see ministers go out of
their way to emphasise how they’ve been �following
the science� to inform their every decision.
Often flanked on camera by other experts, these
officials explain how a change in the infection rate here
or a newly identified trend in outcomes there might
have forced the latest tweak in government policy.
As happened in other health crises,
epidemiologists, public health experts, disease
progression modellers, and critical care administrators
again find themselves in an enduring spotlight. The
global public has now come to be mindful of names
like Dr Anthony �auci, the White House chief medical
advisor, and Dr Anders Tegnell, chief epidemiologist
at �weden’s �ublic Health Agency. What these talking
heads say can have deep and wide impacts on
people’s lives.
In Asia, Dr �oor Hisham bin Abdullah, an endocrine
surgeon and Malaysia’s director-general of health,
appears on television daily. His calming persona
has had a ripple effect across the region as officials
from other countries praise Malaysia’s success in
controlling the virus while taking closer note of his
advice.
In �outh �orea, Dr �ung Eun-kyeong has been
hailed a �national hero� for her work as director of the
�orea Centres for Disease Control and �revention in
keeping down COVID-19 infections and deaths in the
country. �Thank �od for Calm, Competent Deputies�
like her, the Wall Street Journal wrote in April.
�ut despite all the global cerebral firepower aimed
at quelling the pandemic, there’s still much we don’t
know about COVID-19. �ew questions arise everyday
about incubation periods, modes of transmission, and
new vulnerable groups. And while the public regularly
hears from government officials and scientists, it
typically knows little about the real work of science
going on behind the scenes in labs all over the world.
Researchers have now learned enough about
the �AR�-CoV-2 virus, which causes the COVID-19
disease, to know that much remains unknown. �or
example, geneticists are able to read every one of
the 29,903 letters in its genome and know exactly
how its 15 genes are transcribed into instructions to
make which proteins. �ut this has yet to translate into
effective therapies to treat it or stop the disease in its
tracks.
One of the top hurdles has been getting broad
coronavirus screening right, which is impacting the
development of a therapy.
�umerous firms, including Roche, Abbott
�aboratories, and �uest Diagnostics, have been
rushing to develop antibody tests that can determine
whether a person has �AR�-CoV-2 antibodies. �uch
individuals have either been infected and recovered
or perhaps had not shown symptoms and not known
about it.
Having fully accurate antibody testing would be
a tremendous boon to public health officials and
epidemiologists as it would inform them of the level
of immunity within the population and help establish
reliable infection rates. However, it’s not the magic
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62 JULY 2020 GlobalHealthAndTravel.com