Editor’s Letter
At this time, many cities are still under lockdown with many more extending lockdown periods in the bid to slow the spread or “flatten the curve”. Even the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned governments against lifting these movement restrictions too early with the fear of another spike of COVID-19 cases. As many begin to embrace this new norm of working from home, one could only wonder how would life be like after COVID-19?
As the severity of the COVID-19 global pandemic spirals down, for a third consecutive month, we present to you more perspectives on the novel coronavirus. For our cover story, APBN had the privilege to understand what it was like to suffer from COVID-19 in an essay by Dr J. Richard Smith. In his personal experience as a patient he draws on his expertise being a cancer surgeon and a scientist to shed light on the experience. (p. 36) Our contributing writer, Catherine Domingo Ong comments on the societal and global impact COVID-19 in its earlier days of emergence. (p. 28) An op-ed by Johnson Controls also in the features section lays out the fundamentals for hospitals to stay resilient in times of crisis such as the recent infectious disease outbreak. (p .40)
For the month of May, we proudly present to you our Game Changer of the month, CytoMed Therapeutics. Its proprietary technology platforms hope to leverage on the potential of stem cells for immunotherapy for a wide range of cancers. (p. 26)
Supplementing a previous article published in the Special Coronavirus Issue of APBN that was release in March 2020, Professor Lawrence Lau and his team have updated the data on the COVID-19 situation in China. (p. 20)
Besides the race to find a cure for COVID-19, vaccine development has also been of greatest priority for those working to stop the virus from spreading. Development is just the first step, the next is good implementation of vaccination programmes for it to achieve its purpose. To gain better understanding of the proactive ways for successful vaccination programmes, APBN interviewed Francois Sandre, Head of Asia and JPAC for Sanofi Pasteur. (p. 46)
The recent global pandemic has proven to be a pivotal moment for everyone, it has also shown to bring out the importance of accuracy in communicating the science and facts about COVID-19. Even before any concrete evidence of a treatment or a vaccine many forms of pseudoscientific methods that claim to cure the novel coronavirus have surfaced all over the worldwide web. The task for science communication platforms such as APBN is crucial at this time to highlight key information for our audience to have an informed understanding of the actual situation. This is what we will continue to work for and hope to achieve in our coming issues.
Deborah Emmanuel Seah Qing En
Editor