The information in this report shows that less is known about the COVID-19 coronavirus than other disease pathogens. Scientific studies have proven that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is causing this pandemic (World Health Organization-China). But no studies have yet proven the whole sequence of transmission from coronavirus COVID-19 diseased person, through viable virions in a body fluid and transmission route, to infecting and causing disease in another person (Brosseau). Research should also be done on how transmissible the virus is in different body fluids, solid surfaces, air, and animals, and for how long, comparing the transmission routes. These should include studies of viable viruses, like that of van Doremalen et al. The characteristics of different kinds of infected people, including asymptomatic semi-immune people, comparing their roles in transmission, should also be studied. The effectiveness of different prevention techniques should also be measured and compared (Brosseau, Lipsitch et al.; World Health Organization-China; Yuen et al.). Researchers should also ascertain the number of virions needed to infect a person via each transmission route (Khamsi; Yong). These many studies might find that many potential transmission routes are neither completely safe nor unsafe, but have different probabilities of transmission, perhaps in the 20%-80% range. Both the public and health professionals may need to cope with these uncertainties for years.
In addition to those studies of the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on individuals, scientists should study groups’ and communities’ actions and their results. Case histories of transmission chains should be followed up in more detail, in different populations, to compare them. Then, for each transmission route, the basic reproductive numbers R0 should be calculated. The research methods should include cohort studies, household studies, surveillance, epidemiologic field investigations, and case series. Household’s and workplaces’ strategies for preventing transmission should be compared and assessed. The different methods governments and organizations started and eased quarantine and isolation restrictions, and their results, should be studied.
Since scientists in many countries are studying these topics, they should exchange information, to protect people of all nations (G-Science Academies of Science and of Medicine).