Life and matter sciences events

In this colloquium, the results of the COVID-19 epidemiological study in its second phase were analyzed. The general director of the Carlos III Health Institute, Raquel Yotti, stated that the COVID-19 seroprevalence study “will be subject to the evolution of the vaccination campaign.” Together with Raquel Yotti, Marina Pollán, director of the National Epidemiology Center of the Carlos III Health Institute, and Jesús Oteo, director of the National Microbiology Center of the Carlos III Health Institute, participated in the colloquium.

Since the beginning of the pandemic caused by the SARSCoV-2 virus, laboratories around the world have been busy in the development of new vaccines against the disease. DNA vaccines are a novelty in human vaccines. They consist of a circular DNA molecule into which the gene corresponding to the virus antigen that is to be used as an activator of the immune system is introduced, in this case the surface S protein.

The thirteenth edition of “Cycles of conferences and debates”, organized jointly with Springer Nature, was held online. On this day, we indicated the major advances that have allowed them to understand how the SARS-CoV-2 causes the disease and treatment of COVID-19; it also addressed the epidemiological aspects that were crucial to become a pandemic, and the universal lessons that will help to prevent infectious diseases from becoming a future pandemic.

During the pandemic we have become used to reading about time series, incidence indicators, evolution predictions and all kinds of statistics on vaccine effectiveness, risk of reinfection or impact of restriction measures. Many decisions with great influence on our lives are made partly based on models, indicators and scientific reasoning in which Mathematics plays an essential role. Mathematics has also contributed to other pandemic related situations and has offered solutions that optimize resources by achieving a more efficient management.

The COVID-19 disease and its chronic sequel, the Post-COVID Syndrome, also known as Long COVID, highlight the need to deepen the knowledge of the innate response of the immune system and the specific inflammation processes associated with this infection, whose chronic symptoms Long COVID patients suffer. These patients live with symptoms such as fatigue, dyspnea, joint pain, or the worsening of psychosocial conditions all of which are associated with a poorer quality of life.

COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed the use of vaccines that are based, for the first time, on the use of the messenger RNA molecule in humans, but laboratories have been researching mRNA vaccines for years. The use of RNA as a therapeutic molecule to lead the synthesis of a missing or defective protein in genetic diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and metabolic diseases, has been researched for years and these studies are already in clinical trial phases.

The most silenced side of COVID-19 are the thousands of people who, after getting a COVID-19 negative test, continue to suffer its consequences, in some cases completely unable to get back the life they had before falling sick. With the aim to discuss the clinical reality of this situation, which is estimated to affect at least 10% of those who had COVID-19, the Club Última Hora and the Ramón Areces Foundation organized this conversation in the Room ALJUB of the Modern and Contemporary Art Museum at Palma de Mallorca. The colloquium combined the contribution of medical experts with the perspectives of the media and the scientific world.

SARS-COV-2 has caused, in one year, more than 3 million deaths. Science and Healthcare have been struggling between great advances and notable limitations that persist. It is necessary to develop therapies and vaccines against these pathogens before epidemics and pandemics such as SARS-COV-2 occur. We are at the beginning of a new paradigm in which the explanations of classic infectious diseases are giving way to the fundamental microbiological causes, while the etiology mentality of the disease acquires a necessary prominence that previously belonged to the pathological and physiological explanations.

• Covid-19
• Mathematics
• Physics

• Health
• Neurosciences