(We Chinese in America Media Editor Tang Zhao, February 5, 2022) The trumpeter played the melody of "Me and My Country". ((Xinhua News Agency)

The opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics was held on the evening of the 4th local time. First, there were 24 solar terms, and then the five rings of the Winter Olympics were unveiled in a way of "breaking through the ice". Then the dandelion shape released fireworks in spring and English, followed by 56 famous ethnic groups. and representatives of all walks of life passed the national flag, and beside them, a boy playing a trumpet became the focus.

During the passing of the Chinese flag, a young boy stood under the flagpole and played the loud Chinese national anthem " My Motherland and Me" with a trumpet, which became the highlight.

The little boy, dressed in white, played the loud Chinese national anthem "My Motherland and Me" with a trumpet. Although he was small, he did not make any mistakes and played very smoothly. This little boy seems to become famous overnight, just like Lin Miaoke in 2008.

Zhang Sun, director of the Dance Department of Beijing Normal University, said that when selecting young actors, the chief director first asked for a strong professional level, and then hoped to be as young as possible, which are hard to have in the adult world.”

This little boy is only 9 years old, and his name is Zhu Deen. He has gone through layers of selection throughout Beijing and even across the country and has successfully stood out. In fact, there are 2 children around him, but they have become "supporting roles" this time.

In addition to Zhu Deen, the other two are 9-year-old Liu Haoran and 13-year-old Liang Tong. Although they did not appear on the stage, to ensure the safety of the opening ceremony, on February 4, the two children still got up early and were on time. Come to the bird's nest to do all kinds of preparations. Regarding the two of them, the sub-screen director Tao Wenting said: "There are many factors to be considered in large-scale events. If they are not selected, it does not mean that the children are not good. I believe that they will all become great performers in the future."

The duration of the playing part of "My Motherland and Me" is more than 1 minute. The professional difficulty is not very high, but the emotional depth it requires is difficult for children to understand. For this reason, in daily life, Liu Haoran's mother Hao Dongyuan, Liang Tong's father Liang Yanqiu thought of many ways. "Since the child was born, I have never left him." Hao Dongyuan will let the child try to understand the grand "motherland" as a mother and keep approaching the pure affection described by "inseparable for a moment"; Liang Yanqiu told the child a lot of stories about the motherland and about growing up.

(Source: Compiled from Online Information)

(We Chinese in America Media Editor Tang Zhao, February 5, 2022) The sister strain "BA.2" of the diseased subtype of the Omicron variant has been found in the United States, and the transmission power is 1.5 times stronger than that of Omicron. The picture shows a Washington state medical center staff member wearing a gas mask to clean the air at the facility. (Photo from Getty Images)

Scientists are closely tracking the second variant of the Omicron variant (BA.1), BA.2. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), BA.2 patients have been detected in 57 countries; about one-tenth of the gene sequences of patients with new coronary pneumonia uploaded to the Global Initiative for Sharing Influenza Data (Gisaid) are currently infected by BA. 2. The BA.1 strain is still the most important source of infection globally, but BA.2 has become the most important strain in Denmark, India, and South Africa.

1. What is the difference between BA.2 and BA.1?

Two weeks after the discovery of BA.1 by South African medical institutions, three sub-forms were found, namely BA.1, BA.2 and BA.3; less than 400 patients worldwide have been infected with the BA.3 strain so far.

The BA.2 strain has 27 mutations, which are not seen in the BA.1 strain. Public health agencies in Denmark and the United Kingdom noted that these mutations made BA.2 30-34% more infectious than BA.1.

The UK Health and Safety Authority identified BA.2 as a "virus under investigation" in mid-January; the WHO identified Omicron's sub-mutant strains as "variant of concern” but has not yet identified BA.2 alone Variable risk ranking.

2. Can BA.2 avoid immune protection?

The latest Danish study pointed out that BA.2 "has the property of evading immunity"; compared with BA.1, it can "further weaken the protective effect of the vaccine", but the possibility of vaccinated infected persons re-infecting infected persons has not improved. The latest data from the UK Health Security Agency shows that the vaccine is slightly more effective against BA.2 than BA.1.

People at least two weeks after the third dose of the vaccine had 63% protection against symptomatic infection with the BA.1 strain and 70% protection against BA.2. However, this estimate remains uncertain due to limited data. About half of the current South African patients are BA.2 patients.

3. How should BA.2 be treated?

Gupta, professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge, UK, said that although BA.2 is more infectious, government departments do not need to take stricter epidemic prevention measures against BA.2 than BA.1, because BA.1 is already highly infectious.

Pavlin, a member of the WHO's new coronary pneumonia response team, said that BA.2 will not change the hospital situation in fast-infecting countries, and the number of hospitalized patients has not increased rapidly.

4. How do the currently highly infected countries respond to BA.2?

Patients infected with BA.2 in Denmark account for more than 60% of all new COVID-19 infections, and about 1,100 patients have been hospitalized, the highest number since the outbreak, but about a quarter of them were primarily treated for diseases that were not targeted COVID-19.

The South African government announced this week that people who are "positive" but asymptomatic do not need to self-isolate. Although most of the patients in India are infected with BA.2, Mumbai has eased epidemic prevention measures this week.

In Hong Kong, a traveler infected with BA.2 infected hundreds of people during a three-week hotel quarantine, the most serious infection since the outbreak. Shi Ruiha, a clinical virologist at the University of Hong Kong, pointed out that this shows that the previous epidemic prevention measures may not be effective enough, because BA.2 is more infectious.

5. Could BA.2 become the most dominant strain in the world?

Danish experts pointed out that other countries are also possible, but countries with high vaccination rates will be able to avoid a new wave of hospitalizations and will not prolong the global epidemic for too long.

Stuart, professor of structural biology at Oxford University, said it was not surprising that BA.2 surpassed other strains to become the most dominant strain in the UK.

Olivera, director of the South African Centre for Infectious Disease Response and Innovation, pointed out that focusing on the number of infected people in BA.2 is not the right approach because the hospitalization rate of patients is not high.

(Source: Compiled from Online Information)

(We Chinese in America Media Editor Tang Zhao, February 5, 2022) Live performance at the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony was directed by Zhang Yimou. (Associated Press)

The opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics was held at 20:00 on the evening of the 4th. The integration of technology and art became a highlight of the opening ceremony. At the opening ceremony, the audience saw the application of AI, AR, naked eye 3D and other technologies. For the first time, the entire bird's nest has achieved full LED images, with a picture quality of 16K. The day of the opening ceremony happened to be the "Li Chun" in China's 24 solar terms. With this coincidence, Zhang Yimou's team counted down from 24. "From the first second of the opening ceremony, there is a definition of Chinese culture."

Beijing Daily reported that the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics attracted the attention of the audience with elements such as grass, dandelion seeds, ice cubes and snowflakes.

Zhang Yimou revealed that he was surprised when he found this coincidence, and even asked the staff in charge of the bid for the Winter Olympics, did he specifically choose the opening ceremony on Lichun? "They told me that it wasn't specifically chosen. The bid for the Winter Olympics is a very complicated process, and a combination of factors has locked in February 4th. Ouch, I think that's a coincidence! It's a good starting point., let us know how to complete the countdown."

With the coincidence of the beginning of spring, Zhang Yimou's team decided to start from the perspective of Chinese culture, choose the twenty-four solar terms, and count down from 24. "From the very first second of the opening ceremony, there is a definition of Chinese culture."

Various visual effects of the opening ceremony were presented by the joint efforts of designers, data engineers and engineers in the fields of technology and art.

Wang Zhiou, the visual effects director of the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, pointed out through CCTV news, "The pixels of this Winter Olympics performance are very high, it is a giant screen with a resolution of 14,000, a giant screen with a light-emitting screen of more than 10,000 screens. 50 frames per second. So, after the whole content is finished, every time a program is several terabytes of data, you can imagine that it is a very large digital technology project.”

The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics counts down to the twenty-four solar terms. (Photo taken from Weibo)

(Source: World Journal Network)

(We Chinese in America Media Editor Tang Zhao, February 4, 2022) As the 2022 Winter Olympic opened and attracted the world’s attention, the following photo series were taken during the opening ceremony. The Torch Stage of the Winter Olympics is ingenious, and the stage is composed of famous brands from various countries. The last torchbearer was delivered by Dinigel Yilamujiang (left) and Zhao Jiawen (right). (Above :Photo from Associated Press)

The last torch was inserted in the center of the snowflake-shaped torch platform, and the Olympic torch was passed. (Photo from Associated Press)

The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, creating a world of ice and snow. (Photo from Associated Press)

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan at the opening ceremony. (Photo from Associated Press)

The Chinese flag arrives at the opening ceremony. (Photo from Associated Press)

The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics was held at the Beijing Bird's Nest Gymnasium. It was the Spring Festival, and fireworks showed off "SPRING". (Photo from Associated Press)

Team USA enters. (Photo from Associated Press)

The Chinese flag-raising ceremony at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. (Photo from Associated Press)

Live performance at the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony was directed by Zhang Yimou. (Photo from Associated Press)

People watch fireworks outside the opening ceremony. (Photo from Associated Press)

Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the opening ceremony. (Photo from Associated Press)

The Chinese team entered. (Photo from Associated Press)

At the opening ceremony, the actors and the Winter Olympics mascot "Bing Dun Dun" appeared together. (Photo from Associated Press)

(Source: World Journal News Network)