Voice Series COVID-19 Special Collection Part 1: Interview with clinicians: COVID-19 mutation and current breakthrough in vaccine development

Abstract

As we look back on the rough year of 2020, with the emergence of a novel coronavirus (COVID-19), we were faced with many uncertainties, with no known standard treatments or available vaccines. Scientists and clinicians work around the clock to understand and combat this virus. So far, tremendous progresses have been made especially in genetically identifying this virus, which in turn leads to rapid development of drugs and vaccines. With 3 Food and Drug Administration– and 4 China Food and Drug Administration–approved COVID-19 vaccines so far and many more in the pipelines, we are now faced with the dilemma of weighing the effectiveness of these vaccines versus their side effects. The questions that were asked frequently is: should I get vaccinated? In this two-part interview, BIO Integration first interviewed the team of clinicians who were deeply involved in the writing of “The Guidelines for the Diagnosis, Treatment, Prevention and Control of Coronavirus in Adults in China” during the COVID-19 outbreak. This team, led by Professor Shanping Jiang, along with team member Tiantian Tang, now discusses SARSCoV-2 mutation and progress in vaccine development with BIO Integration.