Listen and read 27: Learning to fight the next pandemic - Thấm Tâm Vy

Nội dung text: Listen and read 27: Learning to fight the next pandemic - Thấm Tâm Vy

1. LISTEN AND READ 27 fastest humankind has ever gone from recognising a new disease to immunising against it. LEARNING TO FIGHT THE NEXT PANDEMIC Apart from this progress in vaccines, two other big medical breakthroughs will emerge The novel coronavirus will hasten three big medical from the pandemic. One will be in the field of diagnostics. The next time a novel virus breakthroughs. That is just a start, says Bill Gates crops up, people will probably be able to test for it at home in the same way they test for pregnancy. Instead of peeing on a stick, though, they’ll swab their nostrils. WHEN HISTORIANS write the book on the covid-19 pandemic, what we’ve lived Researchers could have such a test ready within a few months of identifying a new through so far will probably take up only the first third or so. The bulk of the story will disease. be what happens next. The third breakthrough will be in antiviral drugs. These have been an underinvested In most of Europe, East Asia and North America the peak of the pandemic will branch of science. We haven’t been as effective at developing drugs to fight viruses as probably have passed by the end of this month. In a few weeks’ time, many hope, things we have those to fight bacteria. But that will change. Researchers will develop large, will return to the way they were in December. Unfortunately, that won’t happen. diverse libraries of antivirals, which they’ll be able to scan through and quickly find I believe that humanity will beat this pandemic, but only when most of the population effective treatments for novel viruses. is vaccinated. Until then, life will not return to normal. Even if governments lift shelter- All three technologies will prepare us for the next pandemic by allowing us to in-place orders and businesses reopen their doors, humans have a natural aversion to intervene early, when the number of cases is still very low. But the underlying research exposing themselves to disease. Airports won’t have large crowds. Sports will be played will also assist us in fighting existing infectious diseases—and even help advance cures in basically empty stadiums. And the world economy will be for cancer. (Scientists have long thought mRNA vaccines could lead to an eventual depressed because demand will stay low and people will cancer vaccine. Until covid-19, though, there wasn’t much research into how they could spend more conservatively. be produced en masse at even somewhat affordable prices.) As the pandemic slows in developed nations, it will Our progress won’t be in science alone. It will also be in our ability to make sure accelerate in developing ones. Their experience, however, everyone benefits from that science. In the years after 2021, I think we’ll learn from the will be worse. In poorer countries, where fewer jobs can be years after 1945. With the end of the Second World War, leaders built international done remotely, distancing measures won’t work as well. The institutions like the UN to prevent more conflicts. After covid-19, leaders will prepare virus will spread quickly, and health systems won’t be able institutions to prevent the next pandemic. to care for the infected. Covid-19 overwhelmed cities like These will be a mix of national, regional and global organisations. I expect they will New York, but the data suggest that even a single Manhattan participate in regular “germ games” in the same way as armed forces take part in war hospital has more intensive-care beds than most African games. These will keep us ready for the next time a novel virus jumps from bats or birds countries. Millions could die. to humans. They will also prepare us should a bad actor create an infectious disease in a Wealthy nations can help, for example, by making sure home-made lab and try to weaponise it. By practising for a pandemic, the world will critical supplies don’t just go to the highest bidder. But people in rich and poor places also be defending itself against an act of bioterrorism. alike will be safe only once we have an effective medical solution for this virus, which means a vaccine. Keep it global I hope wealthy nations include poorer ones in these preparations, especially by Over the next year, medical researchers will be among the most important people in devoting more foreign aid to building up their primary health-care systems. Even the the world. Fortunately, even before this pandemic, they were making giant leaps in most self-interested person—or isolationist government—should agree with this by vaccinology. Conventional vaccines teach your body to recognise the shape of a now. This pandemic has shown us that viruses don’t obey border laws and that we are pathogen, usually by introducing a dead or weakened form of the virus. But there’s also all connected biologically by a network of microscopic germs, whether we like it or not. a new kind of immunisation that doesn’t require researchers to spend time growing If a novel virus appears in a poor country, we want its doctors to have the ability to spot large volumes of pathogens. it and contain it as soon as possible. These mRMA vaccines use genetic code to give your cells instructions for how to None of this is inevitable. History doesn’t follow a set course. People choose which mount an immune response. They can probably be produced faster than traditional direction to take, and may make the wrong turn. The years after 2021 may resemble the vaccines. years after 1945. But the best analogy for today might be November 10th, 1942. Britain My hope is that, by the second half of 2021, facilities around the world will be had just won its first land victory of the war, and Winston Churchill declared in a manufacturing a vaccine. If that’s the case, it will be a history-making achievement: the speech: “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” [From The Economist, US Edition, 25.04.2020] Thẩm Tâm Vy, April 25th, 2020 LISTEN AND READ 27
2. ___ Bill Gates is the co-founder of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This is part of a series on the world after covid-19 which can be found at Economist.com/coronavirus Notes: - pathogen = germs: mầm bệnh ||| to crop up = arise: appear suddenly ||| mRMA vaccines: combine desirable immunological properties with an outstanding safety profile and the unmet flexibility of genetic vaccines ||| en masse [< Latin]: (done) together ||| follow a set course: do not happen as planned Thẩm Tâm Vy, April 25th, 2020 LISTEN AND READ 27