World Health Organization officials first learned about a cluster of cases of pneumonia in the Hubei Province of China on Dec. 31, 2019. This represented the initial report of what soon became known as COVID-19, the pandemic that has affected the world in myriad ways. The human suffering has been extraordinary. The scientific advancements have been remarkable. As we now reach the fifth anniversary of this pandemic, it’s worth reviewing where we’ve been, how we got here, and where we may be going.
The Chinese government informed the WHO on December 31, 2019, that more than 40 cases of pneumonia of unknown cause had been detected in the city of Wuhan. The cases clustered near the Huanan seafood market, suggesting zoonotic transmission of an infectious agent from an animal supply in the market. However, the report published through the WHO on January 5, 2020 notes that “no evidence of significant human-to-human transmission has been observed. “
Chinese researchers quickly isolated and sequenced the causative agent, a novel coronavirus initially named 2019-nCoV. A genomic analysis showed that this virus was related to, but genetically distinct from SARS-CoV, the coronavirus associated with 2002-2003 SARS pandemic. The 2019-nCoV virus thus was renamed SARS-CoV-2. Because previous coronavirus outbreaks associated with the SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV viruses resulted from zoonotic transfers, researchers theorized that SARS-CoV-2 likewise entered the human population via a zoonotic transmission. But Chinese authorities quickly shut down and disinfected the Huanan market, complicating efforts to conclusively identify the source of the virus.
Despite the WHO’s initial statement, human-to-human transmission occurs.
By mid-January, people infected with the virus had been detected in several countries. The CDC reported a laboratory-confirmed case in the U.S. on Jan. 21, 2020. SARS-CoV-2 continued to spread. Countries throughout the world began implementing travel restrictions. The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Schools, restaurants, and bars closed. Working from home became the norm for many people. The world changed.
Just a year later, it is estimated that 2. 5 million people in the world were already dead.
According to the WHO, since the start of the pandemic there have been around 777 million cases of Covid-19 and 7. 1 million deaths. There have been over a hundred million cases and about 1. 2 million deaths in the United States. Global life expectancy declined for about a year and part of the early stages of the pandemic. However, currently, the number of new cases and deaths per week is low. Around 50,000 new cases and the WHO reported 500 deaths in the week ending December 8, 2024, a sharp decline from figures reported earlier during the pandemic.
The Sars-Cov-2 virus has evolved over the last five years. This is not surprising. Viruses have a maximum mutation rate. They change. And the mutants who have some selective merit will predominate, ahead of the previous variants. For the SARS-COV-2, these selective benefits come with greater transmissibility, a greater evasion of the immune formula and a greater seriousness of the disease. The original virus form was temporarily replaced through the Alpha and Delta variants. The OMICRON variant was first detected beyond 2021 and has continued to be the dominant variant since then. Each variant is more transmissible than its predecessors. The Omicron Subvariants, such as the Jn. 1, have emerged, but no main deviations of the OMICRON variant have been identified.
The trajectory of the pandemic was replaced on December 11, 2020, when the FDA issued an emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BionTech mRNA vaccine. A week later, an EUA issued for Moderna’s mRNA vaccine. In large-scale clinical trials, either vaccine has been shown to be highly effective in preventing severe covid-19 and death from Covid-19. In addition, either vaccine has been shown to be very safe.
Subsequent research showed that the immunity provided by these vaccines waned over time. Additionally, mutations that occurred in the virus decreased the effectiveness of the initial vaccines. Thus, periodic booster shots have been recommended and new formulations have been developed to keep pace with the changing virus. But the availability of these vaccines dramatically changed the course of the pandemic.
Words like “novel” and “unprecedented” were used during the pandemic. However, it is critical to note that our understanding of COVID-19 and the progression of mRNA vaccines was based on decades of fundamental studies. This history of past studies does not deserve to be ignored.
Virologists have been reading the coronavirus for decades. Coronaviruses that infect humans were first known in the 1960s. Although those human coronaviruses were linked to colds, they were widely studied. Coronaviruses that infect mice, such as the mouse hepatitis virus, have also been studied in depth. These basic studies have helped scientists better understand the fundamental aspects of viral pathogenesis. And these studies prepare us for Sars-Cov, Mers and Sars-Cov-2.
Decades of basic research also preceded the development of the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines. We never before had human vaccines that use the mRNA platform, but the idea has been in development for many years. Indeed, Drs. Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2023 for their work leading to the development of these safe and effective vaccines. But their important work was published in 2005, well before the COVID-19 pandemic. And their research was dependent on experiments done by other scientists even earlier.
The COVVI-19 pandemic showed the stigma-related risks. At the beginning of the pandemic, the media reports connected the virus with a place. The Chinese coronavirus. The Wuhan virus. The former President Trump used more derogatory and inflammatory terms. The results? Haine’s crimes opposed to Americans of Asian origin have increased.
Misinformation and disinformation have also exacerbated the Covid-19 pandemic. In the spring of 2020, for example, former President Trump and others continually advocated for the use of hydroxychloroquine as a remedy for Covid-19. Proponents of HCQ, an anti-malarial drug, have sometimes pointed to an article published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents. However, scientists immediately questioned the study design and data analysis. Later and more designed experiments by other researchers cast more doubts. on the effectiveness of HCQ. But those studies did not get widespread media coverage. The damage had already been done. The magazine recently retracted the original article.
In fact, this is not the only Covid-19 study paper that made mainstream news, only to be questioned across the clinical establishment. In early 2020, the studios published an article on the Biorciv preparatory server in which they stated that there were “strange” series similarities between SARS-CoV-2 and HIV. The authors concluded by provocatively stating that the similarities were “unlikely to be coincidental. ” The findings of this paper were also criticized through other scientists and the article retracted.
Words matter. Science matters.
Sras-Cov-2 and CovVI-19 will not disappear. The disease is now endemic. When viruses cause potentially acute respiratory illness, we will have to come up with SARS-CoV-2 listed with the flu virus, RSV and others. And Mrs. -Cov-2 will continue to mutate. This means that regularly updated vaccine formulations will be necessary. A new CovVI-19 vaccine will most likely be advised each year.
Genetic adjustments that occur naturally in SRAS-COV-2 also mean that a new more harmful variant could arise. A variant with increase in transmission or virulence can cause an increase in cases. Therefore, continuous monitoring and genetic research of viral isolated are still essential.
Long Covid remains a vexing problem. The cause still is unknown. (Photo by Martin Pope/SOPA … [+] Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Finally, research into long COVID must continue. For many people, the constellation of symptoms associated with long COVID is a daily reminder of their previous infection. The cause is not known. Some researchers have hypothesized that an undetectable reservoir of the virus remains in some people. Others have hypothesized that a SARS-CoV-2 infection may triggers an autoimmune disease or the reactivation of Epstein-Barr virus. Perhaps, some scientists have speculated, COVID-19 can lead to alterations in the gut microbiome, which subsequently lead to long COVID.
The cause of the long covid will have to be decided and the remedies developed.
The fifth anniversary of COVID-19 represents a logical time to evaluate where we are, remember how we got here, and consider where we may be going. But this milestone certainly does not represent an endpoint. We must remain vigilante. Changes in SARS-CoV-2 will occur. And another novel pathogen may arise.
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