[Book Sip] "COVID-19 Transmission Increases While Virulence Decreases"

Institute for Basic Science 'From Pandemic to Endemic'

Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of the book itself, while others instantly reach the reader's heart, creating a connection with the book. We present such meaningful sentences excerpted from the book. - Editor's note

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads worldwide, signs of it becoming an endemic disease are emerging. COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the grammar of infectious diseases. Due to widespread misinformation, distrust has also increased, but this book provides information on how to properly respond to infectious diseases based on 'correct knowledge.' It focuses on diagnostic methods, vaccines, and treatments, including why Chinese-made vaccines may seem less effective.

Looking at the history of pandemics and viruses, viruses generally increase their transmissibility through mutations while their virulence weakens. It is expected that new variants that will continue to emerge until the COVID-19 pandemic ends will broadly follow this rule.

The basic principle of vaccines is to inject 'all or part of a processed or modified pathogen' into our bodies. Our bodies, having 'indirectly experienced' the virus, form immunity and use that experience as a foundation to fight off the virus when the actual pathogen invades. The processed pathogen functions as an antigen that triggers an immune response inside the body. Until now, developing vaccines required the entire pathogen or parts of it, that is, antigens. However, a new idea that changes the vaccine paradigm has been proposed. Instead of antigens, if a blueprint that can produce antigens is introduced, a similar immune response can be induced?this is a paradigm shift.

Our existing common knowledge about diseases is being broken down one by one. COVID-19 is especially so. It has overturned established theories such as "respiratory diseases usually occur in winter and almost disappear in hot summer" and "before a pandemic, some degree of human-to-human transmission occurs, requiring an adaptation period." Moreover, the emergence of variant viruses is becoming more frequent. Therefore, new scientific approaches and the accumulation of basic knowledge on pathogenesis are increasingly required.