18 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 13, 2020 http://www.bjreview.com
COVER STORY
S
ince the outbreak of the novel corona-
virus (2019-nCoV), China has carried
out close cooperation with interna-
tional organizations and governments on
many fronts, including data-sharing, informa-
tion notification and citizen evacuation, to
curb the virus’ global spread. Its efforts and
transparency were lauded by World Health
CONCERTED
EFFORTS
China pulls out all the stops to
prevent infections from
spreading worldwide
By Wen Qing
Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who said
that Chinese officials have shown they are
committed to combating the transmission
of the virus and demonstrated coopera-
tion with other countries to stem its global
spread.
During President Xi Jinping’s meetingwith Dr. Tedros in Beijing on January 28, Xi
said that China looks forward to continuing
positive cooperation with WHO in sharing
information about the emergency.Pragmatic and transparent
Since this strain of coronavirus was never
seen before in human history, the whole
world is keeping a close eye on China’s pre-
vention and control efforts.
The country has been pragmatic and
transparent in working with WHO since the
beginning of the outbreak. On December
31, 2019, the WHO China Country Office
was informed of cases of pneumonia with
unknown etiology detected in Wuhan,
capital of Hubei Province in central China.
On January 11-12, WHO received detailed
information from China’s National Health
Commission that the outbreak was as-
sociated with exposure to a local seafood
market.
China has kept daily contact with WHO
and implemented comprehensive multi-
sectoral approaches to prevent further viral
spread. On January 10, it shared the genetic
sequence of the 2019-nCoV, which enabled
countries to develop diagnostic kits, quickly
identify and then treat the infected, and
ensure better health outcomes and contain-
ment of the virus.
Sharing these sequences can be sensi-
tive and risky. Samples provided freely by
developing countries are often used by com-
panies in developed countries for vaccines
and other products that are patented and
sold for profit and are usually inaccessible
and unaffordable to these same developing
countries. This is why Indonesia stopped
sharing samples with WHO during the out-
EUHDNRIWKH+1ELUGßXLQZDQWLQJD
JXDUDQWHHWKDWLWZRXOGVKDUHLQWKHEHQHĶWV
derived from the isolates it provided.
But it can also prompt instant research
and concerted efforts to combat a virus.
Analyses began immediately after sci-
entists globally obtained the 2019-nCoV
sequence. According to Science, the jour-
nal of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, Andrew Rambaut,
an evolutionary biologist at the University
of Edinburgh, found that the virus has
an 89-percent similarity to severe acute
respiratory syndrome-related (SARS) mem-
bers of the sarbecoviruses. Ralph Baric, a
coronavirus researcher at the University
of North Carolina, noted that of the four
known SARS-related viruses carried by bats
and capable of infecting humans, this one
is the most distant from SARS itself. After
downloading the sequence, his lab immedi-
ately began to attempt to reverse-engineer
a live virus from the sequence, which can2Q)HEUXDU\WKH8QLWHG$UDE(PLUDWHVoODQGPDUNEXLOGLQJWKH%XUM.KDOLIDLQ'XEDLLVOLWXSLQWKH&KLQHVHUHGßDJ
carrying a message of solidarity and hope
XIN
HU
A