"We would like to work collaboratively with people all over the world on coronavirus and other public health issues. We look to work with our neighbors around the world to benefit people everywhere."
WASHINGTON, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Scientific and medical communities do not buy the unsupported claim that the novel coronavirus originated from a lab in Wuhan, China, a renowned U.S. expert has said.
"The scientific and the medical communities don't make those statements," William Schaffner, a professor of Preventive Medicine in the Department of Health Policy and professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
"We would like to work collaboratively with people all over the world on coronavirus and other public health issues. We look to work with our neighbors around the world to benefit people everywhere," the influential infectious disease specialist said.
Asked about countries' responses to the pandemic, Schaffner said, "My take is that all the countries when we give them a report card, the U.S. included, will have some high marks and some low marks."
"We were very slow to start testing and we're still not testing enough and we need to do social distancing even more thoroughly than we have in the past," the professor said in terms of the U.S. handling of the pandemic.
People wait to take COVID-19 tests outside Elmhurst Hospital in New York, the United States, May 4, 2020.(Xinhua/Wang Ying)
Speaking of two patients in California State who had died of COVID-19 at least three weeks before the first known U.S. death from the virus on Feb. 29, Schaffner said "it tells us again that we have been chasing this virus. We thought we knew when the virus came to the United States, but we did not, it came much earlier and was beginning to spread long before we recognized it."
"It looks just like influenza. And so this was influenza season and nobody noticed that we had a new virus. So the virus got here much earlier than we knew," he said, adding that "the real problem is moving forward and doing our best to keep it down as much as possible."
"We're all waiting for a vaccine. If we have a good vaccine, that would change the game. Until then what we have is social distancing," he said.
A staff member tests samples of the COVID-19 inactivated vaccine at a vaccine production plant of China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) in Beijing, capital of China, April 11, 2020. China has approved two COVID-19 inactivated vaccine candidates for clinical trials, according to the State Council joint prevention and control mechanism against the coronavirus Tuesday. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei)
The public health expert spoke highly of U.S. and Chinese scientists who are working hard on a vaccine for COVID-19.
"So we need to keep emphasizing the good things and let's get that vaccine, so we can all use it to everybody's benefit, " he said. "We're looking forward to the vaccines that are being produced in China and are in trial now."
"And I'm sure you're looking at the ones that are working in the West because once we get our vaccine or maybe more than one, then we need to manufacture it and distribute it to people for their benefit all around the world. "
"From a public health point of view, I think a good reliable antibody test will be very useful. It will tell people in many countries where the virus is and how important it is in different parts of the country," he said. ■
