[The New England Journal of Medicine] From a Sprint to a Marathon in Hong Kong

A gripping tale on how COVID-19 has brought three veterans of epidemic research together.

“As scientists conducting research during a pandemic, we are very much public health practitioners at the same time; we therefore never forget our primary responsibility to the local control effort. We produce daily updates on epidemic progress for the public and weekly reports for authorities, aiming to disseminate the most robust and reliable science to inform decision making. The more successful Hong Kong is at keeping a local epidemic at bay, the harder it will be to maintain effective disease-control measures until the first vaccines against Covid-19 arrive. ”

“We matured during the influenza A (H1N1) pandemic in 2009, were further tested by the influenza A (H7N9) avian-to-human outbreak in 2013, and now face Covid-19. Working at frontiers in science to control emerging infections is difficult, but the art of equanimity and resilience is harder still to master.”

Read how Professor Gabriel M. Leung, Professor Benjamin J. Cowling, and Proessor Joseph T. Wu from School of Public Health, were first alerted to the novel coronavirus, and how they launched a pursuit to stop the virus as public health practitioners.

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