Experts Warn There Would Be New Variant of Coronavirus if It Spreads to Animals

The mutation of Covid-19 is a huge concern for researchers and doctors alike all around the world.

When mutated Covid-19 strains were discovered in many different countries, including Singapore, it drove the medical community into a frenzy.

What if the Covid-19 strain mutates so much a vaccine that was created for it failed to work?

Thankfully, that isn’t the case. Yet.

Experts, however, are now worried about a second possibility: the infection jumping over to animals and back again to humans, in a different variant.

Experts Warn There Would Be New Variant of Coronavirus if It Spreads to Animals

According to infectious diseases expert Wang Linfa, one of the most worrying aspects of the latest coronavirus is that it can transmit from humans to animals, then back to humans.

He calls this process a “spillback”.

Pointing out that it is possible for animals to contract the coronavirus from humans, Sars-Cov-2 could become Sars-Cov-3, 4 or even 5 if the worst-case scenario occurs and the coronavirus mutate and produce different variants.

If it happened to farm animals like in Denmark where farmed minks were found with mutated Covid-19, it would still be okay, the professor said, as the government can order a mass culling.

But if it transmits to wildlife animals, it would be a whole different story, and it’s something that governments should start thinking about, he urges.

Which Countries Did Better

Professor Wang was speaking at a seminar, “Dissecting the disease and its effects”.

He was accompanied by other notable infectious diseases experts, including:

• Professor Kishore Mahbubani, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute in NUS
• Professor Lisa Ng, senior principal investigator at A*Star
• Associate Professor David Lye, director of infectious disease research at NCID

It was noted that the countries which seem to perform better at containing Covid-19 are those which values “collective responsibility” over “individual rights and freedom”.

Basically, those countries which restrict movements and implement laws like Circuit Breaker lah, instead of the country which is in the midst of electing their new president.

It was also pointed out that countries which are more financially prepared like Singapore, which has been “saving for a rainy day” that came out doing relatively better (so far).

The US was also blamed for trying to one-up China during these trying times.

Current Situation in S’pore

So far, the number of locally-transmitted cases is kept low although the authorities are asking Singaporeans not to be complacent.

Singapore is also planning to enter Phase 3 shortly as long as the three main criteria are met. Currently, only one is given the green light so far.

We’re also starting to seek out travel bubble arrangements with other countries and is kicking off the first one with Hong Kong on 22 Nov 2020.

According to Taiwanese media, Singapore is now “actively seeking discussion” for the possibility of a travel bubble with Taiwan’s transport minister.

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