Today in Ukraine, there is a rapid increase in COVID-19 incidence. What is known about the new strains of coronavirus, whether the country is threatened by an epidemic, how the disease affects the immune system and the biological age of a person, as well as about vaccination as an effective means of protection against infectious diseases and important results of the work of Ukrainian scientists in the field of molecular biology were discussed in the program "About Science. Competently" (host – academician of the NAS of Ukraine Volodymyr Seminozhenko), which is broadcast on the YouTube channel of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, by the head of the Laboratory of Innovative Biotechnologies of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics of the NAS of Ukraine, Candidate of Biological Sciences Zenoviy Tkachuk.