Several major issues concerning the environmental transmission and risk prevention of SARS-CoV-2

Jin Ma; Jian Xu; Xiaoli Zhao; Shouliang Huo; Xiaoli Duan; Yunsong Mu; Ying Wang; Yuan Wei; Jiang Chang; Xiaowei Jin; Fengchang Wu

doi:10.1007/s11430-021-9918-9

Several major issues concerning the environmental transmission and risk prevention of SARS-CoV-2

Sci China Earth Sci. 2022;65(6):1047-1056. doi: 10.1007/s11430-021-9918-9. Epub 2022 Apr 20.

Authors

Jin Ma¹, Jian Xu¹, Xiaoli Zhao¹, Shouliang Huo¹, Xiaoli Duan², Yunsong Mu³, Ying Wang⁴, Yuan Wei¹, Jiang Chang¹, Xiaowei Jin⁵, Fengchang Wu¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012 China.
² School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083 China.
³ School of Environment and Nature Resource, Renmin University of China, Beijing, 100872 China.
⁴ School of Space and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing, 102206 China.
⁵ China National Environmental Monitoring Centre, Beijing, 100012 China.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the most serious infectious disease pandemic in the world in a century, and has had a serious impact on the health, safety, and social and economic development of all mankind. Since the earth entered the "Anthropocene", human activities have become the most important driving force of the evolution of the earth system. At the same time, the epidemic frequency of major human infectious diseases worldwide has been increasing, with more than 70% of novel diseases having zoonotic origins. The review of several major epidemics in human history shows that there is a common rule, i.e., changes in the natural environment have an important and profound impact on the occurrence and development of epidemics. Therefore, the impact of the natural environment on the current COVID-19 pandemic and its mechanisms have become scientific issues that need to be resolved urgently. From the perspective of the natural environment, this study systematically investigated several major issues concerning the environmental transmission and risk prevention of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). From a macroscopic temporal and spatial scale, the research focus on understand the impact of the destruction of the natural environment and global changes on the outbreak of infectious diseases; the threat of zoonotic diseases to human health; the regularity for virus diffusion, migration and mutation in environmental media; the mechanisms of virus transmission from animals and environmental media to humans; and environmental safety, secondary risk prevention and control of major epidemics. Suggestions were made for future key research directions and issues that need attention, with a view to providing a reference for the prevention and control of the global coronavirus disease 2019, and to improving the ability of response to major public health emergencies.

Keywords: Ecological security; Environmental transmission; Risk prevention; SARS-CoV-2; Zoonotic diseases.