Reporter Jian Haozheng / Taipei Report
▲ Li Bingying (right) accepted an exclusive interview with Zhou Yukou, a senior media person, on a radio program. (Picture/recapped from the live broadcast of “News Firecrackers”)
The number of new local cases of the new crown (COOVID-19) epidemic on the 1st day increased by 92.9% compared with the same period last week. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently decided to maintain the “highest global alert” for COVID-19. However, Zhuang Renxiang, spokesman of the command center, said yesterday that continuing to downgrade the epidemic prevention in May and June is the direction of efforts. The outside world is curious about the future direction of the new crown, and whether the downgraded command center can also be revoked by then? Li Bingying, the convener of the Vaccination Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said today (2) that it is indeed possible that people can return to their normal lives in the past, but wearing masks on public transportation such as indoor subways will continue for a period of time; he also predicts The new crown virus will become a “cold” in the future, and there should be no need to get vaccinated every year.
After returning to work after the 10-day Spring Festival holiday, the domestic epidemic situation has recently increased significantly. Li Bingying explained in an exclusive interview with Zhou Yukou, a senior media person, that the annual festival activities and the emergence of mutant strains would have caused changes in the number of confirmed cases, but severe cases and death cases are the ones that need the most attention. If these numbers remain the same, there will be no Need to be too nervous. He also believes that after the new crown pneumonia will gradually become milder and become a cold, the vaccine will not need to be vaccinated every year in the future; however, the command center believes that the flu will become the future, and the vaccine still needs to be vaccinated every year.
Zhou asked, what is the difference between cold and flu? Li Bingying pointed out that the biggest difference is that influenza needs to be vaccinated once a year, but colds do not. “Because influenza is a very special virus, its mutation will break through our immune system and cause severe illness.” Currently, there are four types of common influenza, and if the new crown is added, it will become five types. Currently, foreign countries are doing related work. research and development.
Regarding the current trend of the epidemic, Li Bingying said bluntly that “Taiwan has done a good job in epidemic prevention and should be the best in the world.” Mild symptoms of colds are the same, but dozens of people die every day, which is still higher than the number of general flu, and the elderly are still a relatively high-risk group. It is recommended that the vaccine should be given a booster dose to gain protection.
