New COVID-19 variants could emerge to replace Omicron, the most recent major variant, and the key to stopping them spreading is to pay attention to the treatment of mild cases, an evolutionary biologist said yesterday.
Wu Chung-i (吳仲義), an academician at Academia Sinica who researches evolutionary genomics, gave the warning in a speech to the general assembly of the Taiwan Association for Promoting Public Health.
Taiwan downgraded COVID-19 to a less serious communicable disease and ended most prevention measures on May 1.
Photo: Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAM / US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention / Handout via Reuters
Calling for COVID-19 to be treated as an endemic illness such as the flu is irresponsible, because while seasonal flu viruses often undergo antigenic drift — a minor change to a flu virus — SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, continues to spread and evolve, creating new strains that could behave differently to the original virus, Wu said.
Since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic in 2020, SARS-CoV-2 variants such as Alpha, Delta and Omicron have emerged.
After the first wave of infections in around late 2021, subsequent Omicron waves were smaller, giving hope that the pandemic would end, Wu said, adding that this came about because the high transmission rate combined with very mild pathogenicity of the Omicron variant helped build herd immunity.
However, the emergence of new variants could trigger the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wu said.
“When the previous mainstream virus strain existed, no one expected another virus strain to rise,” he said.
For instance, whole-genome sequencing of the Delta strain first appeared in the US and Europe in March 2020, but it was latent for a period before becoming the main global variant from June to November 2021, replacing Alpha, Wu said.
Since the government downgraded the status of COVID-19, most medical resources have been allocated and efforts focused on diagnosing and treating moderate and severe cases of the virus, he said.
However, to stop the spread of viruses, medical and health providers should focus on treating asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic cases to break the chain of infection, he said.
Even if COVID-19 does not make a comeback, the probability of a new coronavirus pandemic that would have a similar impact to COVID-19 cannot be ruled out in the next seven to eight years, Wu said.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
President William Lai (賴清德) should protect Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), and stop supporting domestic strife and discord, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrote on Facebook yesterday. US President Donald Trump and TSMC on Monday jointly announced that the company would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next few years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US. The TSMC plans have promoted concern in Taiwan that it would effectively lead to the chipmaking giant becoming Americanized. The Lai administration lacks tangible policies to address concerns that Taiwan might follow in Ukraine’s footsteps, Ma wrote. Instead, it seems to think it could
A man in Tainan has been cleared on charges of public insult after giving the middle finger during a road rage incident, as judges deemed the gesture was made “briefly to express negative feelings.” In last week’s ruling at the High Court’s Tainan branch, judges acquitted a driver, surnamed Cheng (程), for an incident along Tainan’s Nanmen Road in September 2023, when Cheng had spotted a place to park his car in an adjacent lane. Cheng slowed down his vehicle to go into reverse, to back into the parking spot, but the car behind followed too closely, as its driver thought Cheng
DEFENSE: The purpose of the exercises is to identify strategies for the government to control risks during tensions, prevent war and bolster national resilience A tabletop exercise series has begun simulating possible scenarios if the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched a war against Taiwan in the guise of a military exercise. The exercise series is jointly organized by National Chengchi University’s Institute of International Relations, Taiwan Center for Security Studies and Asia-Pacific Policy Research Association. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Yeong-kang (陳永康), former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) director William Stanton and Taiwan Center for Security Studies director Liu Fu-kuo (劉復國) attended the event in Taipei yesterday. Scenarios that would be simulated include changing political circumstances in the US during US President Donald Trump’s tenure
RSS