GVN's Top Virus Experts Meet Together To Identify Most Promising Advances To Battle COVID-19 & Strategies To Prepare For Future Pandemics
Rapid Diagnostic Testing, Repurposing Drug Therapies and Vaccines Targeting Innate Immunity, Are Integral Factors in Mitigating COVID-19
BALTIMORE,?Sept. 30, 2020?/PRNewswire/ --?The Global Virus Network (GVN), a coalition of the world's leading medical and basic virology research centers working to prevent illness and death from viral disease, convened a press conference with attendees from across the globe to discuss key takeaways from the GVN virtual 2020 Special Annual Meeting held?September 23-24, 2020.
A video of the full press conference, can be found?here.
"We do not know what the future holds for COVID-19 ? there may be seasonal variations or chronic infections or maybe a slowdown,"?said?Dr. Christian Br?chot, GVN President.?"However, we know that we have to prepare and that this for now and not after the end of this pandemics; in the spirit of preparation, it is very timely that we used the Special Annual Meeting to band together international experts to identify and analyze what went wrong, what has been properly handled and what recommendations we can confidently make."
Key findings during the meeting regarding SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 research include:
The Global Virus Network (GVN) is essential and critical in the preparedness, defense and first research response to emerging, exiting and unidentified viruses that pose a clear and present threat to public health, working in close coordination with established national and international institutions. It is a coalition comprised of eminent human and animal virologists from 57 Centers of Excellence and 10 Affiliates in 33 countries worldwide, working collaboratively to train the next generation, advance knowledge about how to identify and diagnose pandemic viruses, mitigate and control how such viruses spread and make us sick, as well as develop drugs, vaccines and treatments to combat them. No single institution in the world has expertise in all viral areas other than the GVN, which brings together the finest medical virologists to leverage their individual expertise and coalesce global teams of specialists on the scientific challenges, issues and problems posed by pandemic viruses. The GVN is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. For more information, please visit?www.gvn.org. Follow us on Twitter?@GlobalVirusNews. SOURCE Global Virus Network
- "Super-spreaders" and "super-spreading" events are major drivers of the pandemic, indicating that only a handful of those infected seem be exponentially contagious. Further, short-range aerosol-driven transmission contributes to the dissemination of the virus, particularly in the context of the super spreading events.
- Key pandemic response strategies ? the need to take better advantage of the major technology progress in diagnostics, a key driver for the control of infectious diseases; salivary sampling will very much increase our testing capacity, including in school settings; novel rapid and cheap molecular rapid diagnostic tests combined with digital-based transmission of the results, tracing and isolation should be widely emphasized, an understanding of communicability and transmission and, most importantly, the creation of a unified and multidisciplinary response with mechanisms for information sharing among international virologists and independent authorities.
- An evaluation of vaccine development ? timing, an analysis of the candidates, side-effects and managing the world's expectation for a satisfactory and timely vaccine. Until a classical, effective vaccine is available, vaccines that stimulate the body's innate immune system, such as the oral polio vaccine and BCG, are integral in protecting against infection.
- A very strong statement against SARS-CoV-2 being the result of human manipulation.
- An update on the available and future therapies, emphasizing the need to combine novel antiviral and immunomodulatory molecules as well as the need to contemplate in the future antivirals with broad spectrum against several viruses.
- Dr.?Linfa Wang, Duke-NUS Medical School,?Singapore
- Dr.?Konstantin Chumakov, FDA Office of Vaccines Research and Review,?USA
- Dr. Ab Osterhaus, TiHo?Hannover, Germany
- Dr.?Johan Neyts, Rega Institute,?Belgium
- Dr.?Raymond Schinazi,?Emory University,?USA
The Global Virus Network (GVN) is essential and critical in the preparedness, defense and first research response to emerging, exiting and unidentified viruses that pose a clear and present threat to public health, working in close coordination with established national and international institutions. It is a coalition comprised of eminent human and animal virologists from 57 Centers of Excellence and 10 Affiliates in 33 countries worldwide, working collaboratively to train the next generation, advance knowledge about how to identify and diagnose pandemic viruses, mitigate and control how such viruses spread and make us sick, as well as develop drugs, vaccines and treatments to combat them. No single institution in the world has expertise in all viral areas other than the GVN, which brings together the finest medical virologists to leverage their individual expertise and coalesce global teams of specialists on the scientific challenges, issues and problems posed by pandemic viruses. The GVN is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. For more information, please visit?www.gvn.org. Follow us on Twitter?@GlobalVirusNews. SOURCE Global Virus Network