Amid the chaos of the pandemic, when many people were worried and unsure about what to do, Dr. Dong Yuhong was one of the medical professionals offering help and advising calm.
“Don’t panic. There are ways out. ”
That is what Dong often told audience members seeking advice on how to deal with the virus. Dong is an infectious diseases expert with over 20 years of research and physician experience in virological diseases. She has taken roles including senior medical scientific expert in a big pharma firm and chief scientific officer at a Swiss biotech company.
“If my speech and papers could help people calm down and find a better way to protect them during the pandemic, that is the biggest reward of my endeavour,” Dong, also a contributor of the publication, told The Epoch Times.
The pandemic panic started in China. Then, it spread across the world.
On Jan. 24, 2020, the regime imposed a lockdown in Wuhan, where the first COVID cases emerged, along with several cities in central China’s Hubei Province, including Huanggang, where Dong’s parents reside.
From thousands of miles away in Switzerland, Dong could only watch helplessly as her parents were sealed in their apartment for weeks, trapped and fearful of catching the virus.
Then, as the epidemic worsened, more governments enacted similar stringent curbs on their own citizens’ movement, fueling concerns about an invisible enemy during difficult times.
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But the increased feelings of uncertainty, isolation, and fear could make people’s condition worse, Dong worried.
“People think that our thoughts are intangible, but they do, in fact, have material effects,” she said.
“Depression, anxiety, stress, anger, and fear all have widespread and well-documented physiological effects. They can affect essential aspects of our biochemistry, from hormone production to our perception of pain. Positive emotions also have an effect, though they can be mixed,” she added.
Dong, then a chief scientific officer at a Swiss biotech company, was thinking about what she could do to help.
In 2021, Dong decided to use her personal time to contribute her knowledge to “Health 1+1,” a weekly medical program on Chinese-language NTD, the sister media of The Epoch Times, something she felt was her “calling.”
“I purely and sincerely want to help people calm down, understand the virus, understand the basic knowledge of human immunity, and give them practical methods to protect themselves,” Dong said.
It was a big switch from doing research in laboratories to speaking in front of a camera, she said. While it was difficult at the beginning, the thank-you messages from viewers motivated her to continue.
In 2022, Dong relocated to New York and started to contribute to the publication. To date, she has published over 100 articles on a wide range of health topics, including viruses, mutations, drugs, immunity, natural therapies, and dietary supplements. These analyses have been viewed 5.6 million times.
Dong Yuhong (courtesy of Dong Yuhong)When Dong spoke of the human immune system, the infectious disease expert was full of gratitude. She called it a “divine-given” gift, especially during the pandemic.
“A virus is like a seed. It can only grow and thrive when there is suitable soil,” she said.
“Our human immunity is a more fundamental internal factor that can decide the outcome of a viral attack: to get infected or not. ”
During the pandemic, governments around the world have focused on developing and distributing vaccines at an unprecedented speed to keep COVID at bay.
But a well-functioning innate immune system is likely to offer more dynamic and holistic protectiveness than these innovative medicines, according to Dong.
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The expert referred to a “human challenge trial” for COVID that kicked off in the UK in 2021. By administering the virus to each of the volunteers, who are healthy adults aged 18-30 and hadn’t been unvaccinated, scientists hoped to have a greater understanding of the development of infections and accelerate the discovery of treatments.
Among the 36 participants who had the virus dripped into their noses, only half of the group developed an infection.
“This is an excellent experiment for people to start to recognize the existence and fundamental role of human immunity,” said Dong. “When different people are exposed to the same amount of virus in their noses, not everyone is infected.”
“Why? Because different people have different immunity. Some people’s immunity is stronger, so they won’t get infected. Others’ immunity is weaker, so they are more susceptible to the virus. ” she said.
Dong forged her career in infectious diseases. She has accumulated nearly 20 years of clinical and research experience in understanding the battle between immunity and viruses.
After she received her Ph.D. from China’s elite Peking University in infectious diseases in 2002, she worked as a senior medical expert at drugmaker Novartis.
While she was dedicated to finding innovative antiviral treatments, Dong cautioned that current modern scientific technological innovation wasn’t always a universal good.
“People are inclined to pursue innovative technology. It seems to have become a widely accepted idea that the more advanced the technology is, the greater benefit it may have.”
“However, there are shortcomings and hidden drawbacks behind these high technologies. Superbugs are generated. Antiviral resistance is an inevitable issue sooner or later. mRNA vaccines seem to produce more problems than their benefits.”
Keeping people’s immune systems healthy has taken on new importance since the pandemic and Dong shared her insights into the topic.
From good nutrition, regular exercise, and quality sleep, Dong said, are some simple and easy steps to keep people healthy. But she noted positive thoughts and moral values also contributed to well-being.
“Scientific research has demonstrated that people with traditional values or following moral values will have a more powerful antiviral immune system, helping them defend against viruses,” said the immunology expert.
Taking honesty as an example. “Researchers have found that cortisol responsiveness of liars is significantly higher than that of truth-tellers, leading to a decline in antiviral ability,” she said, referring to a hormone released from the adrenal glands which affects the immune system.
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In a 2013 paper published in the top-ranked medical journal PNAS, researchers found “people who were inclined to pursue justice and noble goals (more altruistic) had higher interferon gene expression, higher ability to produce antibodies, and significantly lower expression of chronic inflammatory genes,” she said, referring to a protein that helps immune systems fight infections and other diseases.
That’s why “I often cited this study to promote goodness and thinking of others, as such mindsets can indeed protect oneself better against the virus from a microscopic genetic level, which has more fundamental and profound effects” she added.
“Human health is a holistic concept including physical, mental, and spiritual health. Modern science is very advanced at the physical level but still a bit naive at the mind and spiritual levels.
“We still have a long way to go.”