Coronavirus pandemic | WHO team to visit China next week to investigate the origin of COVID-19

Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, WHO, said that a thorough investigation needs to be done into the origins of the virus.

Moneycontrol News

July 04, 2020 / 02:53 PM IST

Amid allegations that China delayed information concerning the novel coronavirus, a team of World Health Organization (WHO) is set to visit China next week to investigate the origin of COVID-19.

The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide has crossed the 11 million mark and now stands at 11,048,509. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths recorded globally has reached over 5.24 lakh (5,24,663), according to data released by Johns Hopkins University.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in January spoke about an agreement with China for sending a team of international experts to work on increasing the understanding of the outbreak.

In an interview with news agency ANI, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, WHO, said that a thorough investigation needs to be done into the origins of the virus. "WHO has been working with the Chinese government for the visit. A team is going to China next week to investigate the origins of the virus,” Swaminathan said.

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COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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