:The world's first "human challenge" trial in which volunteers were deliberately exposed to the coronavirus has found that symptoms had no effect on how likely an infected person is to pass the disease on to others.
The findings underscore the difficulty in preventing community infections as the Word Health Organization (WHO) warns of a rise in cases.
The research project, run by Open Orphan with Imperial College, London, showed that among the 18 participants that caught COVID-19, the severity of symptoms, or whether they developed symptoms at all, had nothing to do with the viral load in their airways.
The viral load, or tendency to shed the virus, was measured by two methods known as focus-forming assay (FFA) and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).
"There was no correlation between the amount of viral shedding by qPCR or FFA and symptom score," the researchers said in paper published by scientific journal Nature Medicine.
The Imperial trial exposed 36 healthy young adults without a history of infection or vaccination to the original SARS-CoV-2 strain of the virus and monitored them in a quarantined setting.
Since two volunteers were found to have had antibodies against the virus after all, they were excluded from the analysis. Slightly more than half of them contracted the virus.
No serious adverse events occurred, and the human challenge study model was shown to be safe and well tolerated in healthy young adults, the research team had said earlier this year.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger;Editing by Robert Birsel)
The liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker Sohshu Maru approaches Jera Co.'s Futtsu Thermal Power Station, unseen, in Futtsu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, on Friday, Dec. 17, 2021. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's announcement on Thursday that he would not abandon a massive Russian gas project was decided weeks ago, sources told Reuters.
Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's announcement on Thursday that he would not abandon a massive Russian gas project was decided weeks ago when he told top officials in private he wouldn't risk Japan's energy security, three sources said.
Kishida assured his trade and economy minister, Koichi Hagiuda, and other officials during meetings in early March that he would stay in the Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas (LNG) project because leaving threatened the economy, the sources said.
The sources with knowledge of those meetings declined to be identified because they are not allowed to speak on the record.
Kishida on Thursday told parliament "it is not our policy to withdraw" from Sakhalin-2, the clearest public comments yet on the offshore project.
The details of the March meetings and the subtle shift in public messaging by both Kishida and other government officials in the weeks that followed help illustrate the difficult balance the Japan has had navigating its response to Russia's Ukraine invasion with other Group of Seven nations.
Even as it targets Russian banks and oligarchs with sanctions, Japan has less leeway than some of its allies to cut ties to Russian gas, on which it has become more reliant since shutting down nuclear reactors after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Faced with national elections in July, Kishida wants to avoid soaring fuel bills and the risk of blackouts. In the immediate aftermath of the invasion — which Russia calls a "special operation" — Japan initially emphasised the need to move in tandem with the G-7, while maintaining a stable supply of energy.
But in the weeks that followed, policymakers increasingly talked about how Japan's stakes in LNG projects could be at risk of seizure and the importance of energy security.
Kishida's announcement may also represent a victory for the trade ministry's energy policy over foreign ministry diplomacy, and could soothe investors in Japanese trading houses that own stakes in Sakhalin-2 and other projects in Russia.
LNG dependence
For more than a decade, energy-poor Japan has tapped Russian gas to cut its Middle East oil reliance and to make up for lost nuclear capacity.
Although it accounts for a small portion of Japan's LNG, the Russian gas costs a fraction of spot market rates and, along with gas from Australia and Southeast Asia, has boosted the amount of energy consumption under Japan's control to more than a third from less than a quarter a decade ago.
If Japan were forced to replace Russian LNG with gas bought on the spot market, that would mean an additional cost of up to 3 trillion yen ($25 billion), at the current spot price, a senior energy agency official, who asked not to be identified, said.
Japanese gas and electricity companies use Russian LNG. Hiroshima Gas, from Kishida's hometown, relies on it for half its supply. Overall, LNG accounts for a quarter of Japan's total energy mix and generates 36% of the country's electricity.
"Even if supply can be secured, the cost of gas will rise tremendously," said Ken Koyama, senior managing director at the Institute of Energy Economics.
National security fears
For some government officials, the big fear is Japan would lose the right to tap gas from Sakhalin, undermining national security by threatening energy independence.
Oil remains Japan's biggest energy source at around two fifths of consumption, and nearly all is transported from the Middle East along sea lanes that pass through waters patrolled by the Chinese navy.
If Tokyo were to ban Russian gas, Beijing could also step in to buy it, one of the sources said. China has called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine but has refused to explicitly condemn the invasion.
Energy independence had long been a concern for Japan, and "could eventually cause tension with Europe and the United States," the energy agency official said.
Still, Kishida may have to reconsider if France pulls out of the Arctic LNG 2 gas development project in Siberia, which is 10% owned by French oil major TotalEnergies, another one of the sources said.
The United States, a close ally, has so far praised Tokyo's sanctions, including a recent ban on Russian gold and a pledge to stop potential sanctions-busting using digital assets, as "unprecedented."
So far, the G-7 has only agreed to reduce dependence on Russian energy rather than impose an immediate halt to energy purchases. Germany in particular is wary of banning Russian supplies that account for about a third of its gas.
But as outrage grows over Ukraine, other G-7 countries could push Kishida to halt Russian gas.
"If the rest of the G-7 decide to ban Russian energy imports then Japan must do so too. If the G-7 decides not to, then Japan can avoid doing anything," said Takayuki Homma, chief economist at Sumitomo Corp Global Research.
A union of 650 tattoo artists issued a statement condemning the decision, calling it "retrograde" and "not worth a penny".
"The court is still walking on four feet when all citizens walk upright," said Kim Do-yoon, the union's chief, a renowned tattooist better known as Doy.
Kim said the court had failed to advance since a 1992 Supreme Court decision that copied a Japanese verdict stipulating that tattooing was medical activity, even though Japanese courts have since overturned that ruling.
Kim Sho-yun, vice president of the Korea Tattoo Federation, also criticised the latest ruling, saying the current law is "nonsense" especially given the country's growing tattoo market and rising global status.
"Why do they insist tattooing is a medical procedure even though doctors can't and don't do that?" she tearfully told a news conference in front of the courthouse, vowing to continue the fight.
The popularity of "K-tattoos" has been surging at home and abroad in recent years thanks to their fine-line designs, delicate details and use of bold colours.
While tattoos are usually covered up on television, many Korean celebrities, including members of K-pop bands, have flaunted them on social media.
Polls show most South Koreans support legalisation of tattooing, but medical associations oppose it, saying its use of needles is an invasive procedure that could damage the body.
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol expressed support before this month's election for legalising so-called cosmetic tattoos, which are semi-permanent and popular for enhancing eyebrows, eyelines and hairlines.
SEOUL: After spending two years being socially distanced in his home country of South Korea, Kim Hoe-jun booked a last-minute flight to Hawaii, where he had enjoyed his honeymoon six years ago, giving in to his craving for overseas travel.
"I bought the ticket just a week ago, but it was rather a no-brainer. It felt like I was making up for those two years not being able to go abroad often as I used to before COVID," he said, before boarding the plane from Incheon International Airport on Friday (Mar 31).
Vaccinated and boosted, Kim and his wife are among South Koreans joining in a rush for "revenge travel" - a term that has been trending on social media as people scramble to book overseas trips that were delayed by coronavirus restrictions.
The boom started after Mar 21 when South Korea lifted a seven-day mandatory quarantine for fully vaccinated travellers arriving from most countries. The restriction had been eased last year but was reimposed in December as the highly infectious Omicron variant spread.
The country has largely scrapped its once-aggressive tracing and containment efforts despite a record COVID-19 wave, joining a growing list of Asian countries which have eased quarantine rules, including Singapore, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Koreans now appear more ready to travel. Polls showed people are less worried about the implications of catching the virus, and increasingly see its prevention as out of their hands.
Sales of overseas flight tickets on 11st, an e-commerce unit of SK Telecom, South Korea's top mobile carrier, rose more than eight-fold compared with a year before between Mar 11, when the lifting of quarantine was announced, and March 27, the company said.
Kim Na-yeon, 27, was excited to return to Hawaii where she used to live.
"I couldn't dare to travel even in Korea because of COVID," she said. "But now I feel a bit freer with the exemption, so I've decided to go meet old friends and do some sightseeing."
The Helix Bridge is seen next to the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort, during dusk in the central business district of Singapore, November 13, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lam
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MUMBAI, March 30 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Singapore’s centre of gravity is shifting. The pandemic burnished its reputation as a haven for rich Asians looking to park their money. But beyond its role as a “Switzerland of the East”, entrepreneurs, executives and investors — especially from China — are looking at the tiny country as a destination for more active business investment.
The Lion City, home to 5.5 million people at the tip of the Malay peninsula, has benefited enormously from political uncertainty and pandemic pains elsewhere. Take $68 billion DBS Group (DBSM.SI), the top local lender: net new money inflows into its private bank from overseas logged an astonishing 170% increase year-on-year in the first half of 2020, and remain robust. Single-family offices in the city multiplied fivefold between 2017 and 2019, and stood at around 400 in 2020, per official estimates. All the signs suggest that pace is picking up.
Singapore is also slowly shedding its unwelcome nickname “Singa-snore”, referring to the city’s easy pace. Frustrated Western finance executives fleeing Hong Kong’s ham-fisted Covid-19 policies have started relocating to the hub, generating flattering headlines. Much more significant, however, is Singapore’s increasing attractiveness to technology firms.
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The local stock exchange still struggles to attract hot initial public offerings. But that is less of a sore point now that tech champions like Grab , Sea (SE.N) and GoTo are using the city as a base to tap Southeast Asia, home to a population more than twice the United States. Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google and Zoom (ZM.O) are ramping up for similar reasons. The International Monetary Fund’s ASEAN-5 grouping, including Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam, comprise a $3 trillion economy forecast to grow at almost 6% in 2022.
Cryptocurrency geeks are popping up too. Though regulators are being picky about approvals for licences to trade, shunning big names like Binance, they are tentatively embracing the industry with an eye on the potential of related blockchain technologies. That stands in sharp contrast to bans elsewhere. The absence of a tax on capital gains is a sweetener.
But the most striking trend, which gathered pace through the pandemic, is the scaling up of the mainland Chinese presence even as Singapore leans West diplomatically. The government ditched its famous neutrality to sanction Russia read more and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was welcomed read more in the White House on Tuesday.
Some ultra-rich Chinese may be seeking a buffer between their wealth, businesses, and the constant crackdowns from Beijing: Singapore allows family office principals with net investible assets of at least S$200 million ($147 million) to apply for permanent residence. Yet the trend also coincides with excitement about the accelerating digitisation of developing Asia, so there’s a business logic too. ByteDance’s short-video streaming app TikTok has set up shop, while the city is home to Tencent’s (0700.HK) biggest office outside of China for its global interactive entertainment operations. Chinese investment funds are coming too: Sean Tong, co-founder of Chinese private equity firm Boyu, is among the high-profile investors to have relocated.
This is a natural extension of Singapore’s $150 billion relationship with its top trading partner, facilitated by another advantage the city has over Hong Kong; in Singapore 30% of the population speaks Mandarin - the most common dialect in mainland China – as the primary language, compared to only 2% of Hong Kong residents. This is reinforcing its advantage as a place where those doing business in India, Southeast Asia and China can comingle.
Its lenders and airlines look strong too, buttressing its hub image. DBS is leading an overseas push by Singaporean banks into India, China and Taiwan, making bolt on acquisitions partly filling in a retail banking gap left in markets abandoned by Citi (C.N). And its national carrier is in strong position to support regional connectivity. Sovereign wealth fund Temasek threw Singapore Airlines (SIAL.SI) a first-class financial lifeline early during the pandemic; Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific (0293.HK), in contrast, is still struggling.
CHAMPAGNE PROBLEMS
Nothing complicates social relationships like success, however. While rich Singaporeans benefit from the increase in business, many nevertheless bemoan the tacky Bentleys acquired by mainland China arrivistes clogging parking lots. The cost of a large car permit has more than doubled in three years to about S$90,000 ($73,000). Rents for high-end property are soaring and slots at top private schools are growing scarce.
Among the nearly 80% of the population who live in government-developed housing, Singapore’s welcoming attitude to the monied risks driving up the overall cost of living. Headline inflation rose at 4.3% in February, its fastest pace in nine years. So while Singapore quietly courts the wealthy, it is loudly tightening up on employment visas. The government plans to raise goods and services taxes next year and is exploring ways to get more out of the wealthy.
The sustainability of Singapore’s advantage will get a more thorough test after the pandemic disruptions in Asia ease. For all the worries about immigration, the city’s population contracted a second consecutive year in the twelve months through June 2021, driven by a nearly 11% drop in non-residents. Other headwinds include crashing valuations in the tech sector and the risk that Beijing will get prickly about how the hub is helping Chinese capitalists hedge against government policies. Rebalancing Singapore is a delicate affair.
(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)
CONTEXT NEWS
- Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong visited the White House on March 29.
- U.S. President Joe Biden planned to discuss Russia's invasion of Ukraine and China's role in the Indo-Pacific with Lee at the meeting, Reuters reported, citing a senior administration official.
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Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.
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