Understanding how to live with COVID-19 is essential until we have a vaccine

A blog from Yan Huo, founder of the Huo Family Foundation

In the global fight against the virus, gaining a better understanding of transmission and immune response and the effectiveness of testing is crucial. It’s the key that will enable our children to get back to school, people to return to work, and communities to rebuild safely. No single individual, country or organisation will be able to meet these challenges alone.

It’s an area in which we at the Huo Family Foundation (HFF) are keen to make a difference. While the main focus is quite rightly on an effective vaccine, we can support the wider research on how best to live with the disease.

HFF was founded more than ten years ago and has a very clear mission ‘to support education, communities and the pursuit of knowledge’. It was apparent to us that understanding the science behind Covid-19 is an important step to mitigate the hardships caused by the pandemic.

Supporting new studies and untested ideas is an area in which philanthropy can play such a significant role. We’re fortunate to live in a country that is home to institutions at the forefront of scientific research. HFF acted with speed to fund three multi-year grants at the University of Oxford, King’s College London and Imperial College. All research projects are well positioned to make swift progress in the fight against Covid-19.

While important, it is only one area in the coordinated effort to beat Covid-19. It’s our hope that governments, businesses and other non-profits can make use of the scientific discoveries during this time to meet the current challenges. We remain committed and hopeful.