Experts confident about fighting future pandemics

Medical experts said that the world in general reacted quickly to COVID-19, and expressed confidence that the international community can do better in the future as public health systems improve.

They made the remarks at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2023 on Wednesday held in Boao, a coastal town in Hainan province. The forum runs from Tuesday to Friday.

Gao Fu, director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Microbiology, said at the forum that China reacted quickly and managed the virus well.

"Although the virus is special, we shared data quickly and transparently for the world to respond quickly," Gao said.

Facing the sudden onslaught of a previously unknown virus, China rapidly mobilized the manpower and resources of the whole nation and did everything possible to protect the lives and health of its people.

"It was a great improvement in public health, especially compared with SARS. China figured out what the virus was and understood the epidemic in a short time."

He said that in an uncertain world, governments have to think about tomorrow and work together.

"It was the first time human beings had encountered such a virus. We didn't know what it would be. We learned from this pandemic. People rely on our common sense and knowledge to learn about the world. But sometimes it doesn't work. We can't predict the future," Gao said.

He added it is critical to focus on public health and basic medical research by investing more.

"It is necessary for us to improve the disease control system if we want to find things out sooner. We need to invest in basic research, and in medical facilities and materials."

Leif Johansson, president of the board of directors at AstraZeneca, a biopharmaceutical company, told the forum that vaccines were produced very efficiently, protecting against serious disease and death.

"I think what we would have liked to see is also for the vaccines to be able to be better in protecting against transmission. So I certainly don't accept that this is the best we can do.

"I am quite optimistic that when the next pandemic comes, we will be able to find ways to identify what those are and then start preparing ideas on how to make vaccines for them," he said.