COVID-19 1 year later. What have we learned?

It has been more than a year since the first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in the United States.

And remember while we’re busy washing our hands, wearing masks, and sometimes scrambling to get toilet paper? — Doctors and scientists have been working here to understand the virus that hit us.

“We have made overwhelming and gradual tremendous progress,” said Dr. Paula Traktman, a virologist and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the Medical University of South Carolina at Charleston, last year.

“Who knew we were thinking about this every hour we woke up, so overwhelmed? And I don’t think we’ve learned a crazy new science about viruses, so it’s incremental, but I learned something crazy about pandemics, “she said.

Here are some of the most important questions about COVID-19 that experts have been able to answer in the past year, and some that remain a mystery.

What did we learn about where this coronavirus came from?

A year ago, scientists theorized that this new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was probably derived from bats, after which another animal inherited it into humans.

For a month, it still seems to be the most plausible theory World Health Organization (WHO) Survey report in China.

To the general public, this may sound like a sci-fi thriller conspiracy, but virologists are not surprised.

SARS-CoV-2 is actually “a new flavor of the familiar virus,” Traktman said. “When you see [it], I will tell you a familiar story. “

There are actually 7 different things Human coronavirus.. The four milder strains have been circulating in humans for years and are believed to be responsible for up to 30 percent of the common cold.

However, SARS-CoV-2 is even more similar to the other two potentially deadly strains, SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome).

“The anomaly is that SARS-CoV-2 is far less deadly than SARS or MERS, but much more global. It seems to last forever, and it’s really wide and durable. It had an impact. that is News, “said Traktman.

What did we learn about the COVID-19 “long-distance carrier”?

Usually, mild cases of COVID-19 are about 2 weeksIn severe cases, it may take up to 6 weeks to recover.

However, about 10% of people who develop COVID-19 have symptoms that last for months.

There are many about theseLong-distance carrierIt still makes the doctor mysterious. For starters, they are people of all ages. Some have no underlying health condition, while others have a mild illness with COVID-19.

Post-COVID-19 syndrome can range from severe fatigue and fog to nausea, headaches, and loss of taste and smell.

Dr. Bradley Sunville, a lung and emergency physician at the UC Davis Medical Center Post COVID-19 Clinic in Sacramento, California, said:

Some long haul carriers have one protracted symptom and others have 15 symptom.

“That’s why it’s hard to analyze what’s happening and whether there’s one unified problem … I don’t know if people will get better over time. If so, I don’t know the time frame. Hmm. It’s hard, “said Sunville.

For the past year, medical professionals have focused primarily on fighting the virus, but “a sufficient number of people have been vaccinated, the spread of COVID has slowed enough, and more people in this group. I hope you can see it better, “says Sanville.

Experts do not yet know the exact reason, but they have found that children experience a much lower infection rate than adults.Getty Images

Why does the virus have different effects on children and adults?

We now know that children experience a much lower infection rate than adults.

Children between the ages of 5 and 17 make up less than 10% of all COVID-19 cases identified in the United States, while children under the age of 4 make up only 2%.

But experts are still not completely sure why.

One of the interesting theories is related to a protein called angiotensin converting enzyme 2. ACE2, It is found in cells throughout the human body.

SARS-CoV-2 must bind to ACE2 in order to enter the cell. Children, of course, have less ACE2 than adults, and there are physiological differences that can help avoid severe infections.

Dr. Justin Lessler (MHS), an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said: “But at this point, I don’t think we have a definitive answer.”

What are the useful and useless drugs for the treatment of COVID-19?

Over the past year, “the medical community has definitely learned a lot about how to manage. [COVID-19] “Patient,” said Traktman.

Treatments known to help people with COVID-19 are “from simple to interventionist. [as a result] Today, far fewer people are dying from ventilators, “says Traktman.

Some of the valuable discoveries include: Dexamethasone, Common steroids. It helps prevent the body’s immune system from dangerously overreacting to the new coronavirus.

Also called a simple strategy Proning — Place people in the stomach — can help them breathe more easily. (When you lie on your back, your heart and stomach press on your lungs and require more oxygen.)

As far as drugs are concerned, “antibody cocktails are still trying to find their niche,” Traktman said. “If you give people antibodies to fight the virus, it should help. What we still don’t know is when to give them to whom … it’s still very airy.”

In October, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Approved the first treatment for COVID-19, an antiviral drug called remdesivir.

Early studies showed that people who received remdesivir recovered faster and were less likely to become severely ill. However, other studies have not been able to reproduce these results.

A WHO trial More than 11,000 people in 30 countries find that remdesivir, along with three other reused antivirals like hydroxychloroquine, has little or no effect on COVID-19. Did.

However, if antiviral treatment is still out of reach, at least now there is a COVID-19 vaccine. So far, there are three in the United States, not just one.

“Vaccines have made tremendous progress,” said Traktman. “In a faster, safer and more effective way than anyone can imagine.”

Did the wrong information make the fight against COVID-19 difficult?

It is not “fake news” to say that the answer to this question is yes.

Dr. Maimuna Majumder, a computational epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, said:

For example, when former President Donald Trump thought in April last year that bleach injections could be a potential treatment for COVID-19, the next day, online searches for disinfectant drinks and injections surged. Did. the study From Majumder and the team.

The same was true for the online search of the Poison Control Center. Upticks in case of addiction Because I took a disinfectant.

“Medical false alarms are certainly not a new phenomenon,” said Majumder. “But in many ways, the Trump administration has made medical misinformation more mainstream than before.”

What mistakes did you make in educating the general public about masking?

From the onset of the pandemic, it seemed clear that respiratory droplets could infect the coronavirus.

And indeed, we now clearly know that the virus can be released into the air simply by coughing, sneezing, singing, talking, and simply breathing.

So it’s clear that the mask does a lot. “The barrier alone stops the largest droplets. They are trapped in the mask, and the small droplets cannot penetrate the cloth well,” Traktman said.

Still Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) I waited until July last year to finally approve the wearing of the mask.

And yet, “there was this confusion about whether to wear a mask as a way to protect yourself or to protect others,” Traktman said.

“By protecting myself, some people said,’I’m big and tough.’ I don’t get sick. Protecting others who appealed to more community-oriented people, “I’m very careful, I’m not sick. I don’t have to,” she said.

“It wasn’t very effective to allow the mask to be interpreted as an option,” Traktman said.

Some studies Documents COVID-19 infection rates in various cities before and after the Mask Ordinance.

“The data is black or white,” says Traktman. “When the community enacted the Mask Ordinance, the infection rate plummeted. It really works.”

Dr. Paula Traktman, a virologist and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, said:Getty Images

Why is it more difficult to manage a pandemic due to the lack of a national plan?

“COVID-19 is an infectious disease, so what’s happening to other people elsewhere affects us,” said the wrestler.

“If a region manages with one approach and cross-state neighbors take very different approaches, it affects how both approaches work,” he said.

Coordinating behavior can make virus control more effective, according to wrestlers. Top-down consistency and clarity also help people at the state and local levels make more informed decisions.

“It’s time to provide central guidance on what is known to work and what isn’t, support for those areas, and perhaps most importantly, to constitute success or change behavior. There’s some sense of what the indicators mean, these are all. It’s important to support control efforts, “said the wrestler.

As an example, “there was no conversation about whether our management goal was to quickly eliminate the spread, or to keep things under control so that hospitals and healthcare systems weren’t overwhelmed,” Wrestler said. Stated.

“In effect, the latter is what we did, but we had never had such a conversation, which led to a lot of confusion and frustration,” he said.

What do you think will happen to your life a year from now?

When vaccination and infection reach herd immunity, “the virus is hunted down and does not spread very well because we cannot find enough people to spread,” Traktman said. “Then we will probably wear the mask only under certain circumstances.”

These situations may include sitting in a crowded cinema for three hours or being pushed into the subway during rush hours.

“And are we really going to blow the candles on the birthday cake again? I don’t know,” Tractman said.

But reaching that point “depends heavily on how the virus evolves,” the wrestler said.

Experts are pretty good at understanding where things can go in the short term, and predicting years to come, Wrestler said.

But is it only one year? “It’s hard to say something for sure,” he said.