Social and Academic Responsibility Given COVID-19 Pandemic.

Dear Editor-in-Chief

There is every sign the world is about to be gripped by a pandemic coronavirus. The rapid spread of the disease and its social and economic consequences indicates that the international community is not ready yet to fight public health issues.

The current 2019 novel Coronavirus (2019nCoV or COVID-19) outbreak was thought to be originated from the “wet market”, in Wuhan, China which sells game animals or fresh meat mainly from wild animals. This is in part similar to the SARS outbreak in 2003 Guangzhou, China which also connected to the “wet market” (1,2). In the initial presentation of disease, most involved cases were geographically attendant to the Huanan seafood market, which was consequently related to being trading center of fresh slaughtered game animals (1). There is a major concern to zoonotic origin of the virus. Furthermore, bats are likely considered as the initial reservoir of the virus. SARS-CoV was transferred to humans from exotic animals in wet markets, while similarly MERS-CoV was transmitted from animals to humans as the zoonotic origin (3) makes the current outbreak as a new chapter in an old story (4). This is not the first virus spreading from “wet market” and might not be the last. Consequently, health officials need to be accountable to the scientific community for what happens in this market, what preventive measures have been taken in the previous epidemic in “wet market” management, and why it cannot have sufficient oversight.

The significant decline in new cases of COVID-19 by controlling the disease has been revealed in China (5) which cannot be attributed solely to proper quarantine, we believe.

In the early future, scientists in traditional or modern medicine may likely develop a successful protocol to dramatically reduce the distribution of the disease over a short period. Therefore, they wish to share their experiences with the scientific community with the up to date protocols. The world is confronted by this pandemic, therefore removing the crippling sanctions against other countries is required in this emergency condition (6).

The nature of the COVID-19 showed that the world is interconnected. Then, if there is a humanitarian catastrophe, subsequently it might affect the entire world and make the global health at risk. Last but not least, this is an international public health emergency. Any secrecy in introducing innovative protocols in management and treatment of disease must be accompanied by compensation.