On October 20, Zeng Guang, former chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, was a guest at the Public Health Lecture Hall of Nankai University. Under the theme COVID-19 Prevention and Control and Public Health Reform, Mr.Zeng analyzed the reasons for China's stage success in this pandemic and shared his thoughts on China's public health reform for the teachers and students of Nankai University.

Wang Lei, Vice President of Nankai University, attended the lecture and delivered Zeng Guang “the certificate of Nankai Public Health Lecture Hall.”

After introducing the overall process of COVID-19 from initial outbreak to a global pandemic, Zeng Guang reviewed China’s experience on preventing and controlling epidemics nationwide. He believed that the experience of SARS prevention and control was very important in a response to COVID-19. However that may be, SARS is incomparable to COVID-19 in its scale for the difficulty of prevention and control and then the international environment.

Joint prevention and control was directly led by the Central Committee and the State Council; the epidemic information was released in a transparent way; China took the lead in isolating the virus and developing diagnostic reagents; high-level expert teams spoke out; Wuhan went on lock down, the community closed and people from other regions rushed to Wuhan to provide assistance; Huoshenshan Hospital, Leishenshan Hospital and mobile cabin hospitals were constructed super-quickly; the seventh edition of the diagnosis and treatment plan and the sixth edition of the prevention and control guide were introduced; China shared experience and provided materials to assist global prevention and control; China declared vaccines as an international public product to ensure the epidemic to be quickly controlled. China regained the initiative in the epidemic prevention and control.” Zeng Guang said.

Highly Vigilant Against the Superimposed Infection of COVID-19 but also against Influenza

At present, the situation of China's epidemic prevention and control continues to improve: China has entered a “new-normal” phase which requires to focus on both epidemic prevention and control and socio-economic development. Zeng Guang believes that this phase will probably last for a long time, and guarding against imported cases and a rebound in indigenous cases is a long-term task of the new-normal.

Zeng Guang pointed out that with the coming of autumn and winter, we need to be highly vigilant about the concurrence of the spread of COVID-19 and influenza. COVID-19 spreads through the same route as influenza virus spreads, so it is difficult to differentiate them clinically.  The concurrence of COVID-19 and influenza will pose huge challenges for epidemic prevention and control. We must be well prepared.

Go Through Strong Wind and Big Storms to become an Excellent Expert in Public Health

When answering students' questions about vaccines, Zeng Guang said that in fact, when evaluating vaccines, there is no excellent mark but a passing score. A good vaccine can be used as long as it is safe and effective. Long-term efficacy and safety should be observed in the long-run. Therefore, we believe that our new vaccine available can be a good one.

At the end of the lecture, Zeng Guang sent his message to the students: Dear students, you are blessed and lucky to have the opportunity to study public health at Nankai University. Always remember that becoming a good expert in public health implies going through “strong wind and big storms”. I hope you will do your best.

The event was broadcasted synchronously through SOHU network, SOHU News Client and other network platforms, with a total page views of over 760,000.

Nankai Public Health Lecture Hall is jointly organized by the Institute of Public Health of Nankai University and the Tianjin Joint Institute of Public Health. It is planned to invite more renowned experts in the field of public health to give lectures, cultivate high-quality talents in public health and make contributions to the development of public health in China and even in the whole world. A lecture is planned to be held once a month and ten times a year. The main venue is located at Nankai University, and it will be broadcasted live across the country.

(Reported by Junhui Wu, Photographed by Junhui Wu, Translated by Chengcheng Chang, Edited by Davide Francolino and JianjingYun)