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      COVID-19 Epidemic and Enhancing China’s National Biosecurity System

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          Abstract

          The ongoing epidemic of novel Coronavirus 2019, formally relabeled “COVID-19” by the World Health Organization (WHO), caused almost 2,345 fatalities by Feb 21, 2020, with over 65,000 cases confirmed worldwide. According to the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on Feb 21, 2020, the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic has preliminarily been contained 1. The COVID-19 epidemic has had an immediate impact on the Chinese and the world economy, since the national economies are significantly more interlinked now than when Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) hit 17 years ago, and China plays a more significant role in the current world economy. While the epidemic put a damper on industries like transport and tourism, rapid growth has been registered in burgeoning sectors such as online shopping, food, and entertainment 2. Concurrently, the COVID-19 epidemic will have a long-term impact on China's capacity-building and biosecurity system for public health emergencies, and may even become a new watershed. The outbreak poses a serious challenge to China's national health emergency response capabilities, and is also a comprehensive test of the country's biological security system. Alleviation of epidemics after top political order on public health has demonstrated that national emergency response capacity is qualified, but there is provisional conclusion that at local and departmental view, emergency response capacity in number of provinces and cities is below the average 3, and departments of government are unprepared, one of the main causes of the outbreak. Furthermore, rumors and conspiracy theories, centered upon the origin, scale, and magnitude of the epidemic 4, the misuse of outbreak for irrational purposes by extra-territorial countries, and COVID-19 as a bioweapon, have been circulating in affected countries across Asia since this virus was first discovered 5. In response to the outbreak, it seems that national biosecurity system indeed has certain acknowledged performance on emergency research and development of diagnostic reagents, vaccines, therapeutics 6. However, if the epidemic progresses and needs urgent scientific and technological support, the case would be much more pessimistic. Moreover, the subject of biosecurity is extremely widespread and includes incidents such as bioterrorism, threat of biological weapons, cyber biosecurity 7, etc. Therefore, the reliability of the national biosecurity system is a thorny issue. Based on an analysis of 39 published Joint External Evaluation reports, the Nuclear Threat Initiative found that 74% of the assessed countries demonstrated limited or no capacity for a whole-of-government national biosafety and biosecurity system 8. Without extreme system stress challenge, it is difficult to assure that national biosecurity is already adequate and reliable. The COVID-19 outbreak, no less severe than the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the H1N1 outbreak in 2009, is also a new test of the international community's ability to respond to major outbreaks of infectious diseases. The WHO, in response to the outbreak, activated the R&D Blueprint, which accelerated diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics for this novel coronavirus 9. Scientists and medical researchers in the US have been instructed to investigate the scientific origins of the novel coronavirus, as misinformation about the outbreak spread online 10. As a global alliance financing and coordinating the development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) launched a new call for proposals to develop vaccines against coronavirus 11. To assist in ending this epidemic, The Lancet has created a Coronavirus Resource Centre. The Journal of the American Medical Association is providing updates on diagnosis and treatment of coronavirus. Overall, the international community is remaining calm about China's outbreak, actively taking measures, and providing substantial support for prevention and control of the epidemic in China, by extending scientific research collaborations, such as between Europe and China. A number of world leaders have expressed their sympathies and extended support for China's battle against the COVID-19 epidemic 12. WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, paid tribute to the Chinese people, praising them for showing courage and patience in this extremely difficult time. Therefore, the international community's reaction reflect the rationality of China's claim on the community of human destiny for public health, and further highlight the need to strengthen the community of human destiny for public health and biosecurity. Looking forward, the international biosecurity situation is prone to complications such as changes in climate and ecological environment due to globalization, urbanization, accelerated diffusion of technology, and advances in biotechnology and information technology. The abuse and misuse of biotechnology, such as for bioterror or strategic competition between large nations, cannot be excluded. Particularly, the risk of dysfunction in the international order brought by scientific and technological progress, which if mishandled, may lead to more serious consequences. Compared with the biosecurity situation in earlier times, the biosecurity situation in the new era is systematic, relevant, disruptive, and more susceptible to collapse. As an advocate of the concept of the “Community of Human Destiny”, China would play active roles in innovating its own biosecurity system. Enhancing a national biosafety and biosecurity system that protects scientists, healthcare workers, and public from exposure to harmful pathogens is a critical part of the nation’s efforts to bolster national security. According to 12th meeting of the CPC Central Committee for deepening overall reform held on Feb17, 2020, China will include biosecurity into its national security system 13. Efficient prevention and control of biosecurity incidents requires sharing of scientific knowledge and coordination between departments of disease prevention and control, medical institutions, and scientific research institutions 14. Further, to cope with the unpredictability of biosecurity events, the daily operation mechanism of emergency system, such as bio-surveillance and biomonitoring, will be further strengthened and the emergency mechanism is assured to be precisely switched once outbreak identified. Raising awareness about biological risks among government officials at all levels and the public is of paramount importance. The list of tasks includes a comprehensive and holistic risk assessment of catastrophic infectious diseases, reorganization of response structure and response workforce, enactment of laws and regulations, and more effective distribution of medical countermeasures 15. Financial support for emergency response capacity and biosecurity discipline is also necessary. The sole objective is to transform the response to outbreaks of major infectious diseases from passive observation to active prediction and intervention. Regional and global co-operation is also required to safeguard global biosecurity. However, without an independent assessment of national health security capability, it is difficult to fully understand needs, identify gaps, and track improvements over time. Since the launch of the Global Health Security Agenda, the international community has placed greater emphasis on measuring health security capacity and identifying gaps in preparedness, with the development of a Global Health Security Index as a good example 16. Based on the stakeholders' urgent needs and the international community's common concerns on public health and biosecurity, national and international resources will be fully mobilized to health crisis management. The next outbreak and biosecurity crisis may occur anywhere and anytime, thus, to avoid greater losses and more serious consequences, key problems must be resolved before the next epidemic. Avoid using short coordinating conjunctions like “and” and “but” at the beginning of sentences. Starting a sentence with conjunctions like “and” and “but” lends a slightly informal tone to the writing.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          J Biosaf Biosecur
          J Biosaf Biosecur
          Journal of Biosafety and Biosecurity
          Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.
          2588-9338
          17 April 2020
          17 April 2020
          Article
          S2588-9338(20)30005-4
          10.1016/j.jobb.2020.03.002
          7164852
          92f1ead8-4006-4136-a3d5-878e3f574ad1
          © 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.

          Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

          History
          : 25 February 2020
          : 11 March 2020
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