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National Taiwan University College of Public Health dean Chan Chang-chuan speaks at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
National Taiwan University’s College of Public Health yesterday urged the government to promote a policy that would allow people to take classes or work from home, or allocate separate work and school hours to reduce the possibility of COVID-19 cluster infections.

As the summer is near, it is not a good idea for people to wear masks the whole day, college dean Chan Chang-chuan (詹長權) said.

If the government does not want to lock down the entire country as Beijing has done to in Wuhan, which would maximize social distance, it would be better to divide people into groups to work and attend classes at different hours or from home, Chan said, adding that people should also follow the government’s instructions to contain the disease’s spread.

This is the only way the government could avoid shutting down the entire country, he said.

Scientists in the US have found that the severity and contagiousness of COVID-19 is close to that of the 1968 influenza outbreak, Chan said.

If a global disease-prevention policy is not put in place, the situation could turn into a rerun of the Spanish pandemic of 1918, he said.

“The key to prevention is to buy time, which would reduce the duration of the epidemic and its peak, alleviate the workload of medical professionals, and allow scientists to develop vaccines and medicines to fight the virus,” he said.

College vice dean Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said that people should embrace social distancing measures to slow COVID-19’s spread.

Taiwan can help minimize the threat by applying social distancing as used in other countries, Chen said.

One such approach is to keep a distance of at least 1m between people, as is practiced in Finland, he said.

“I had a chance to be a visiting professor in Finland and it was very interesting,” Chen said. “If there was a free seat next to someone on the bus, Finns would rather go sit somewhere else further away.”

Social distancing could help countries prevent the spread of the coronavirus, he said.

It is not advisable to hold large-scale activities at this time, but if an event must be held, there are ways to decrease the risk, Chen said.

In related news, the Taiwan Railways Administration yesterday announced that its policy of curbing cluster-infection risks would be implemented at 17 other stations in addition to Taipei Railway Station: Keelung, Nangang, Songshan, Banciao, Taoyuan, Jhungli, Fongyuan, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan, Sintsoying, Kaohsiung, Fongshan, Pingtung, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung.

The policy authorizes station personnel to cancel large events at stations and ban large groups.

Additional reporting by Hsiao Yu-hsin

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title: Virus Outbreak: Experts urge separate work, class policies


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Audio electronics maker Merry Electronics Co (美律) yesterday said that it expects business to slow this quarter due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

“We are looking at great challenges ahead … everything from our end to our clients’ end — we have a very low order visibility,” Merry president Allen Huang (黃朝豊) told investors at an earnings conference in Taipei.

Highlighting the recent outbreak of COVID-19 in Europe and the US, Huang said that clients are growing uneasy regarding market demand, which might dampen the firm’s upcoming orders.

Client demand is not Merry’s only concern.

An imminent shortage of materials might threaten production as the company’s Chinese suppliers struggle to resume operations, Huang said.

“We have had a shortage of button-cell batteries for our true wireless stereo earphones since last quarter, which has hurt our revenue,” Huang said.

Merry has sought help from a second supply source and expects the supplier’s shipments to arrive sometime next quarter after it addressed a quality control issue, the company said.

During the fourth quarter of last year, Merry’s revenue declined 35.76 percent year-on-year to NT$8.6 billion (US$285.49 million), which it mainly attributed to a 60 percent fall in sales of headsets due to a delay in production.

Merry’s largest contributing business segment, speakers, saw an 11 percent year-on-year increase in sales last quarter as demand for smartphone speakers exceeded the company’s expectations, Huang said.

The company’s net profit last quarter dropped 62.3 percent year-on-year to NT$466.85 million, resulting in earnings per share of NT$2.27.

Although Merry is resuming production at its Chinese plants relatively quickly after anti-epidemic measures were deployed, Huang said that revenue this quarter is expected to decline from last quarter.

“The production utilization rate at our plants varies between 60 and 90 percent … but it is no use for all our employees to return to work while we face material shortages,” Huang said, adding that he expects continued shortages of printed circuit boards, wires, cables and plastic packaging components in the near future.

“While we purchase electronic components globally, most of our suppliers are situated in China” where logistics are hindered, Huang said, providing a dim outlook for shipments this quarter.

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title: Merry expects outbreak to hurt supply, demand


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Virus Outbreak: China’s PMIs hit all-time lows

RIPPLE EFFECT:Factory sentiment data showed how the outbreak is disrupting supply chains and reducing demand throughout the region
An employee works on a production line manufacturing steel rims for bicycles at a factory in Hangzhou, China, yesterday.Photo: Reuters
Asia’s factories took a tumble last month under the weight of the rapidly spreading COVID-19 outbreak, with a severe plunge in activity in China driving down output across the region.

China’s Caixin Media and IHS Markit purchasing managers’ index (PMI) dropped to 40.3, its lowest reading since the series began in 2004, figures released yesterday showed.

South Korea’s PMI, a critical bellwether of global demand, dropped to a four-month low of 48.7 from 49.8 in January, while the Jibun Bank Japan index declined to 47.8, the lowest reading since May 2016.

Taiwan dropped below 50, the dividing line between expansion and contraction, while Thailand and Malaysia stayed in that territory.

Vietnam’s PMI fell to a more than six-year low of 49. India’s Markit PMI cooled from January’s level, which was the highest in almost eight years.

The factory sentiment data show how the virus is rippling through the region, disrupting supply chains and depressing demand. Travel restrictions are widespread, schools and businesses are shuttered in parts of the region and governments are scrambling to provide stimulus to shore up their economies.

China’s official PMI last month plunged to a record-low 35.7 from 50 at the start of the year, data released on Saturday showed.

The big decline signals a worse-than-expected first-quarter contraction, with Nomura Holdings Inc economists led by Lu Ting (陸挺) projecting the economy shrank 2.5 percent in the first three months of the year from the previous period.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd and Barclays PLC also cut their forecasts and now expect full-year growth to be below 5 percent.

For China, “evidence of factories re-starting — albeit very unevenly and tentatively — means that the recovery will be somewhat short of a resounding V-shaped rebound,” said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank Ltd in Singapore. “The bigger picture of a tepid recovery from brutal seizures remains.”

Global markets have been roiled by virus fears, with equities and bond yields sliding early yesterday, before rebounding amid signs of support from central banks.

The US Federal Reserve on Friday signaled that it is open to easing policy, while Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda yesterday issued an emergency statement to calm market jitters.

Indonesia was a lone bright spot in the regional data, seeing its PMI gauge rise to 51.9, its first reading in expansion since June.

Southeast Asia’s biggest economy yesterday confirmed its first two coronavirus cases, amid concern that testing has not been vigorous enough.

“We expect China’s PMIs to see some improvement in the coming months. Yet the continued disruptions in the supply chain and weakness of the Chinese economy could put downward pressures on the regional economies for some time. Policy support is expected across in China and the rest of Asia,” Bloomberg Economics chief Asia economist Chang Shu (舒暢) said.

China’s economy is gradually returning to work with activity likely running at 60 to 70 percent capacity last week, a Bloomberg Economics report said, up from about 50 percent two weeks ago.

South Korea has been particularly hard-hit over the past two weeks, as virus cases surged above 4,200.

The Bank of Korea refrained from cutting interest rates when it met last week, opting instead to extend inexpensive loans to small businesses and leaving it for the government to take broader action.

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title: Yageo’s plan to raise funds includes convertible bonds

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Passive components maker Yageo Corp (國巨) yesterday said that its board of directors has decided to offer 80 million new shares by issuing global depositary receipts (GDRs) and euro-convertible bonds (ECBs).

Yageo had initially proposed to offer the 80 million shares entirely as GDRs, a regulatory filing issued in January said, adding that the company wanted to raise funds to replenish operating capital, repay debts and purchase raw materials.

However, investors were worried that increasing its issued capital by 18 percent to 509.05 million shares, from 429.05 million shares, would dilute earnings per share.

The company made a U-turn yesterday, saying it now plans to issue between 40 million and 70 million common shares in the form of GDRs.

The new proposal aims to raise US$930 million based on the shares’ closing price of NT$418.5 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.

The remaining 10 million common shares are to be issued in the form of ECBs, to raise US$200 million in fresh funds, the company said in a statement.

The ECBs would carry a coupon rate of zero and a maturity of five years, it said.

Separately, Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (FET, 遠傳電信) yesterday said that it has chosen Ericsson AG to supply more than 1,000 5G base stations for the 3.5-gigahertz frequency band.

The company did not disclose the cost of the deal, but said that it aims to roll out 5G services in the summer.

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title: New car sales climb 39.3% despite virus

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The nation’s new vehicle sales surged 39.3 percent to 27,350 units last month from 19,640 a year earlier, undeterred by an outbreak of COVID-19, online market researcher UCar said in a report yesterday, citing Directorate-General of Highways data.

The market researcher attributed the annual growth to seasonal factors, as car sales were not affected by the Lunar New Year holiday, which began in January this year, but started in February last year.

In the first two months of this year, car sales rose 4.7 percent year-on-year to 668,000 units, the report said.

Imported cars from firms such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW AG accounted for more than 50 percent of the total sales.

“February, somehow, was an uneven period for the car market,” UCar said in the report. “Because of COVID-19, consumers were less willing to visit car dealers’ showrooms.”

That added to seasonal weakness, driving car sales down 30.6 percent month-on-month from 39,417 units in January, the report said, adding that the slack season usually follows the Lunar New Year holiday.

With the rising potential for COVID-19 to become a global pandemic, its negative effects are expected to worsen, UCar said.

The outbreak is likely to disrupt auto component supply chains and stall vehicle assembly lines between March 15 and March 31, given that automakers’ component inventories are shrinking, it said.

Sales are ultimately expected to be adversely affected by the outbreak, the report said.

Last month, Hotai Motor Co Ltd (和泰汽車), which distributes Toyota and Lexus vehicles, saw sales climb 21.3 percent annually to 20,026 units, thanks to robust sales of its luxury Lexus cars and the Toyota RAV4, the report said.

Hotai was the nation’s top car distributor for the month.

China Motor Corp (中華汽車) ranked second with 6,925 vehicles sold, thanks to sales of the revamped Veryca van.

The figure represented a slide of 13.7 percent from a year earlier.

Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產) ranked third with sales falling 5.9 percent annually to 5,377 units.

Ford Lio Ho Motor Co (福特六和), the seventh-biggest car distributor, saw its sales grow the most among the top 10 car vendors last month.

The company sold 3,293 vehicles, up 40 percent from a year earlier, due to steady sales of the Ford Focus sedan.

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Virus Outbreak: Taipei rejects Ko Wen-je COVID-19 online rumor

The Taipei City Government yesterday rejected a rumor that Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has contracted COVID-19.

Online rumors saying that Ko had contracted the virus and was in quarantine along with others who he had close contact with began spreading after the mayor canceled his attendance on Sunday afternoon at a news conference at the opening of an exhibition of veteran entertainer Betty Pai’s (白嘉莉) paintings.

Taipei City Government deputy spokeswoman Huang Ching-yin said that Ko had not been feeling well for two days, but he had not contracted COVID-19 and was not hospitalized.

Ko was at Taipei City Hall to conduct the morning administrative meeting at 7:30am as usual yesterday, she said, adding that he canceled his Sunday plans because he had diarrhea and suspected he had a norovirus.

Ko said that his detractors and Chinese trolls had posted misleading remarks and spread a rumor that he had COVID-19.

“I might fall down, but I will stand up again quickly, ” he wrote on Facebook.

Huang said that the city government has asked the Taipei Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division to investigate the rumors and that it would file lawsuits against people found to have started the rumors.

People should not to share online rumors, she said.

In other news, the city government said that a man who died on a street in Taipei on Sunday had not been quarantined.

Local Chinese-language media reported that a 48-year-old man surnamed Liu (劉), who had been exposed to a confirmed COVID-19 case, but lost contact with health authorities, was found unconscious at midday on Sunday and was dead on arrival at a hospital.

Taipei City Government deputy spokesman Tai Yu-wen (戴于文) said that Liu had been in the same New Taipei City hospital room as a confirmed COVID-19 case, but he did not come into close contact with the other patient and was assessed as having low risk of infection, so he was only listed as a “subject for health monitoring.”

The cause of Liu’s death is being investigated, Tai said.

Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said that Liu was in the hospital room with the COVID-19 patient on Feb. 6, but they did not stay in the same space for more than an hour.

If a forensic pathologist suggests that the body be tested for COVID-19, specimens would be sent to the Central Epidemic Command Center, Chuang said.

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Manufacturing PMI increases to 52.7

SERVICE SECTOR HIT:Despite the manufacturing sector remaining stable, the non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index dropped by the most in recorded history
Local manufacturers last month remained resilient thanks to inventory demand, despite poor market visibility, while service-oriented firms reported that business took a nosedive amid a COVID-19 outbreak, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.

The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) climbed 1.4 points to 52.7 last month, pushed up mainly by the subindices on delivery time and unfinished orders, as the virus disrupted shipments, the Taipei-based think tank said in a survey.

“Demand from the supply side, instead of end-market demand, accounted for the PMI increase, reflecting the predicament facing local manufacturers,” CIER president Chen Shi-kuan (陳思寬) told a news briefing in Taipei.

Many local firms are finding it difficult to deliver goods to their clients or obtain the materials needed to produce electronic components, because of travel restrictions and a shortage of labor in China, Chen said.

The gauge on delivery time rose from 57.1 to a record of 63.1, while the index on unfinished orders climbed from 52.9 to 55.9, the institute’s monthly survey showed, although almost all sectors saw a solid decline in new business and export orders.

The inventory gauge sank from 42.9 to 40.7, indicating that clients ran out of stock but hesitated to build up more, Chen said.

PMI values above 50 suggest an expansion, while readings below the threshold indicate a contraction.

Concerns over supply chain disruptions prompted some firms to frontload inventory, which might create correction pressure if the epidemic drags on, CIER said.

The subindex on new business orders grew from 55 to 56.9, with companies involved in supplying raw materials being the primary beneficiaries, it said.

The industrial output gauge improved from 41.7 to 48.6, CIER said.

The subindex on the business outlook for the next six months plunged from 63.7 to 36.8, the sharpest decline in recorded history as firms failed to see order visibility beyond April, CIER researcher Chen Shin-hui (陳馨蕙) said.

“COVID-19 poses an evolving risk for local manufacturers and there is no room for optimism,” Chen Shin-hui said.

Companies reliant on domestic demand fared worse in the non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (NMI), which tumbled at the fastest pace in recorded history from 55 to 40.4, ending 11 straight months of expansion, a separate survey by the CIER found.

Restaurants and hotels suffered the most, with a bleak NMI score of 16.1.

Service-oriented companies are struggling to survive supply chain disruptions and reduced consumer activity, the institute said.

Most sectors have a dim view of business given that the six-moth outlook was 26.6, a steep decline from 56.7 a month earlier, it said.

“Hopefully, relief measures provided by the government can help ease the pinch,” Chen Shi-kuan said.

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title: Manufacturing PMI increases to 52.7


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Travel Quality Assurance Association
secretary-general Wu Mei-hui speaks at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.Photo: Chuang Shih-hsien, Taipei Times
The Travel Quality Assurance Association yesterday estimated that about 500 travel agencies would be forced to suspend operations in the first half of this year due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The association, whose members include more than 3,926 travel agencies, said that almost all of its members would be forced to temporarily stop businesses should the outbreak continue into the second half.

The first six months is usually the high season for tours to Japan, as Taiwan has the Lunar New Year holiday in January and three long weekends — 228 Peace Memorial Day last month, Tomb Sweeping Day in April and Dragon Boat Festival in June — association secretary-general Wu Mei-hui (吳美惠) said, adding that Japan’s cherry blossom season began this month.

Many travel agencies are already facing severe challenges caused by declining revenue due to the outbreak, Wu said.

What makes the situation worse is that service suppliers that work with travel agencies confiscate deposits paid on behalf of tourists, Wu said, adding that this makes funding shortfalls arise more swiftly.

“Our conservative estimate is that more than 500 travel agencies would temporarily cease business in the first half,” she said. “At least 1,500 travel agencies might be forced to place their employees on furlough. Should the disease persist until the second half, more than 90 percent of travel agencies across the nation would temporarily suspend operations.”

The disease has prompted more than 2,000 complaints to the association last month over how travel agencies have handled tour cancelations, which is more than it normally receives in a year, she said.

Normally, the association handles 1,200 to 1,300 consumer complaints per year, Wu said.

Most of the complaints were over cancelations of tours to Japan and Europe, she said.

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) has announced a level 2 “alert” for Japan, urging people to take enhanced precautions when traveling there.

Apart from Italy, which is under a level 3 “warning,” the CECC has not listed European nations as affected by COVID-19.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has raised its travel alert to Hokkaido in Japan to “orange,” meaning that people should avoid unnecessary travel there.

Wu said that people are still concerned about traveling overseas, even to a non COVID-19-affected area, as they fear the risk of contracting the virus in closed environments, such as aircraft and buses.

The main reason for complaints is that people think that fees for canceled tours are too high, Wu said, adding that 70 percent of cases were over dissatisfaction with flight ticket refunds.

“If the airlines refuse refunds, fees for canceling tours would inevitably be high. This upsets people, who file complaints with the association or the Consumer Protection Committee, or even seek assistance from legislators representing their electoral districts,” Wu said.

The total amount in dispute from fees due to canceled tours could exceed NT$10 billion (US$331.96 million) by the end of June, she said.

The disputes put many travel agencies in a bind, she said.

Based on the standardized travel contract, consumers must be given receipts if they are asked to pay fees.

However, some airlines, particularly those operating flights to Japan, refuse to produce receipts and if the consumer refuses to pay, travel agencies are forced to cover this expenses themselves, she said.

title: Virus Outbreak: Travel agencies tipped to suffer


title: US investigating faulty test kits for coronavirus

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The US Department of Health and Human Services on Sunday said that it is investigating a manufacturing defect in some initial COVID-19 test kits that prompted some US states to seek emergency approval to use their own test kits.

On Saturday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that his state would immediately begin using its own test kit developed in-state after asking the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday for permission to do so.

The FDA on Saturday said that it would allow some laboratories to immediately use tests they have developed and validated to achieve more rapid testing capacity for the coronavirus.

On Sunday, New York confirmed its first case of the disease.

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said in a statement on Sunday that “upon learning about the test issue from CDC [the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], FDA worked with CDC to determine that problems with certain test components were due to a manufacturing issue. We worked hand in hand with CDC to resolve the issues with manufacturing.”

US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Sunday told ABC’s This Week that the US has 75,000 test kits on hand “and over the next week that will expand radically.”

More than 3,600 people in the US have been tested, Azar said.

Hahn said that the “FDA has confidence in the design and current manufacturing of the test that already have [been] and are continuing to be distributed.”

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title: Warm winter means no German ice wine harvest

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A wine grower harvests frozen Silvaner grapes used for making ice wine in Wuerzburg, Germany, on Jan. 19, 2016.Photo: EPA-EFE
A warm winter means that for the first time in years Germany’s vineyards would produce no ice wine — a pricey, golden nectar made from grapes that have been left to freeze on the vine.

The German Wine Institute on Sunday said that none of the country’s wine regions saw the necessary low temperature of minus-7°C.

A succession of warm winters have cut into ice wine production, the institute said, adding that in 2017, only seven producers managed to make it, and only five managed it in 2013.

The institute, the wine industry’s marketing arm, did not say how far back records went.

“If warm winters become more frequent over the coming years, ice wines from Germany’s regions will soon became an even more expensive rarity than they already are,” wine institute spokesman Ernst Buescher said.

Freezing the grapes before they are crushed concentrates the sugar and leads to an intensely sweet, golden wine often served with dessert. It has always been a niche product, accounting for about 0.1 percent of German production, and expensive due to low volumes.

Making it is a tricky business that can enhance the winemaker’s reputation. Workers must race into the vineyards to bring the grapes in with only a few hours notice when the temperature falls, often at night or in the early morning.

Since the grapes must be pressed while still frozen, makers labor in unheated facilities. Vineyard owners also face the risk that grapes set aside for ice wine will rot on the vine before the hard freeze comes.

Canada’s Niagara Peninsula is one of several other places where ice wine is produced, thanks to its cold winters. It is also made in northern Michigan and Ashtabula County, Ohio near Lake Erie.

Major markets for German ice wine include Japan and China, as well as Scandinavia and the US, the institute said.

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title: Asia’s period problems

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Olivia Cotes-James, center, founder of LUUNA Naturals, speaks last month during a workshop in Hong Kong.Photo: AFP

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Olivia Cotes-James wants us to talk about menstrual health.

Properly.

No more euphemisms, no more opaque marketing, no more superstitions, and no glossing over cramps, bleeding or pain: Reframing current attitudes is vital for female empowerment and health, as well as the environment, says the 29-year-old founder of LUNNA Naturals, which hails itself as Asia’s first period care company with an all-female leadership team. She is not alone in wanting to change the conversation: Last year the UN warned that taboos around menstrual health were “disempowering” women worldwide, calling for action to end it.

“Period stigma is the biggest barrier to the global advancement of women,” says Cotes-James, adding: “Periods can still cause us to feel dirty, ashamed and frustrated. If menstrual taboos persist and society continues to devalue our fundamental female biology, what hopes do we have of ever being seen as equal?”

On average women will spend up to eight years of their lives on their period, according to UNICEF. They are vital to the continuity of the human race, but myths and misconceptions still dominate worldwide.

The arrival of menstrual cups, period underwear, which can remove the need for products entirely and apps that track your cycle have led to a new culture of openness in a generation keen to verbalize the long-hidden realities of the female experience and reproductive rights — from #MeToo and #ShoutYourAbortion, to miscarriage awareness campaign #Iamthe1in4 and #Trustaftertrauma, where women share their stories of obstetric violence. Bloggers and vloggers lay bare the realities of how period products work on social media. There is even a period emoji in the pipeline.

MYTHS AND MISOGYNY

Normalizing menstrual health can only be good for women’s overall health, says Cotes-James, whose firm sells organic cotton pads, liners and tampons, as well as medical grade silicone menstrual cups, but also works to help low income communities across Asia who don’t have access to safe, hygienic products.

“Instead of seeing menstruation as a powerful indicator of well-being we are taught to shun it,” she says. “In doing so, we ignore vital signs of underlying health issues. For example, around one in 10 women have endometriosis, yet it still takes almost a decade on average to diagnose. A huge part of this is the fact that we don’t pay attention to tell-tale signs like how much blood we lose every month, or dismiss painful menstrual symptoms as normal because society has led us to believe that they are.”

Using a menstrual cup, could help women gauge if the amount of blood they lose falls within the normal range, she says, adding that open discussions about cramps, nausea, or pain, will help us understand whether there is an issue within our bodies. In parts of Asia, the situation is even more complex for women as deeply ingrained cultural and religious beliefs often add another layer of restrictions on them.

In rural Nepal, women are still exiled to outhouses during their periods, despite the practice being illegal and resulting in deaths from exposure as well as sexual and animal attacks. In parts of South Asia, menstruating women are seen as unclean, spreading disease and are forbidden from touching communal food, while across the region having a period renders people too impure to visit temples.


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Virus Outbreak: Virus causes sharp drop in China pollution: NASA

A handout composite picture made available by NASA on Sunday shows concentrations of nitrogen dioxide over China between Jan. 1 to 20 and Feb. 10 to 25.Photo: EPA-EFE
NASA satellite images show a dramatic fall in pollution over China that is “partly related” to the economic slowdown due to a novel coronavirus outbreak, the US space agency said.

The reduction in nitrogen dioxide pollution was first noticed near Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, but eventually spread across China, according to NASA scientists who examined data collected by their and European Space Agency satellites.

Maps comparing nitrogen dioxide concentrations showed a marked decline between Jan. 1 to 20, before a sweeping quarantine was imposed on Wuhan and other cities, and Feb. 10 to 25.

“There is evidence that the change is at least partly related to the economic slowdown following the outbreak of coronavirus,” NASA’s Earth Observatory said in a statement.

Chinese authorities have taken drastic steps to contain the virus, curbing the movement of people, temporarily closing factories across the country and quarantining central Hubei Province, a key industrial region where the epidemic first appeared.

Nitrogen dioxide is a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion in vehicles and power plants, and can cause respiratory problems, such as asthma.

“This is the first time I have seen such a dramatic drop-off over such a wide area for a specific event,” said Liu Fei, an air quality researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

The 2008 global financial crisis saw a decrease in nitrogen dioxide over several countries, but it was a gradual fall, she said.

This year’s fall came during the Lunar New Year, when factories and businesses close, but researchers believe the decline is far greater than could be attributed to the holiday period.

Nitrogen dioxide concentrations over eastern and central China were 10 to 30 percent lower than what is normally observed over the time period.

And there has not been a rebound in levels after the holiday.

“This year, the reduction rate is more significant than in past years and it has lasted longer,” Liu said.

“I am not surprised because many cities nationwide have taken measures to minimize spread of the virus,” she said.

A separate study last month found China’s carbon emissions had dropped by least 100 million tonnes in the previous fortnight — nearly 6 percent of global emissions during the same period last year.

According to a study by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Finland, the rapid spread of the coronavirus led to a drop in demand for coal and oil, resulting in the emissions slump.

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title: People turn backs on Bloomberg at church service

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People stage a die-in protest on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on Sunday as part of events marking Bloody Sunday.Photo: AP

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Former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg on Sunday faced a tense protest at the Brown Chapel in Selma, Alabama, with a handful of people standing and turning their backs on him as the Democratic presidential hopeful spoke in the pulpit.

Even before Bloomberg began speaking, it was clear that his presence at the church, which was the epicenter of the civil rights movement in Selma, was controversial.

Pastor Leodis Strong prefaced the mayor’s speech by saying that when he first invited Bloomberg, he rebuffed the invitation only to later change his mind.

“It shows a willingness on his part to change,” Strong said, before adding that he wanted Bloomberg to come to Selma to listen to people.

However, several in the audience could be heard whispering in contempt — referencing the stop-and-frisk policing policy he pursued in New York and his wealth.

One of the people who turned his back to the mayor was Ryan Haygood, president and chief executive officer of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.

As Bloomberg spoke, Haygood said he thought about the treatment civil rights organizers faced from police in the chapel 55 years ago as they protested for equal voting rights.

Bloomberg presided over the same kind of tactics as mayor of New York, Haygood said.

As he realized Bloomberg was not planning to address that issue, he decided to turn his back, Haygood said.

“I thought this would be the place where he could finally say once and for all: ‘Let me own what I did, let me atone for it,’” Haygood said. “He didn’t even touch it which is more disrespectful. And some of the foot soldiers were in the building, who were brutalized.”

Bloomberg, who apologized for stop-and-frisk in November last year, was one of several high-profile figures to attend a nearly four-hour service, including former US vice president Joe Biden, and US senators Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, who are also seeking the Democratic nomination.

Former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg also joined marchers re-enacting the walk across the steel-arched Edmund Pettus Bridge that ended in mayhem on Bloody Sunday in 1965 during a Selma to Montgomery march.

Biden and Warren were fresh off the South Carolina primary, which Biden won handily. He earned a warm welcome at the chapel, where he spoke about the legacy of the civil rights movement and the need for healing in the face of division.

“When I get up in the morning sometimes I wonder whether its 1920 or 2020,” he said. “I’m serious, think about it.”

Biden evoked former US president Barack Obama, US Representative John Lewis, a civil right activist, and the importance of the church.

Additional reporting by AP

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content_text:
With her flashing rings, green-streaked hair and “Hack the patriarchy” laptop stickers, Nighat Dad is a digital warrior.

However, the human rights award winner and founder of Pakistan’s first cyberharassment helpline still teared up as she described receiving calls from women afraid of being killed by male relatives for using the Internet.

“We sometimes find ourselves helpless... Somebody calls us and asks for help while crying that ‘Please, please save my life,’” she told reporters at the offices for her non-profit Digital Rights Foundation in the eastern city of Lahore.

Much of Pakistani society lives under the patriarchal, outdated code of so-called “honor” that systemizes the oppression of women by preventing them from, for example, choosing their own husband or working outside the home.

Advocates have denounced pervasive, sometimes deadly violence by men — usually male relatives — against women who break those taboos.

The situation is dire enough in the offline world.

However, Pakistan is only just beginning to grapple with what violent notions of honor mean for women online, in a country where Internet penetration is at 22 percent and growing, but digital literacy is low.

There have been examples of men attacking women for using the Internet in ways that much of the rest of the world considers normal, such as publishing photographs of themselves on a Facebook page.

Dad formed the Digital Rights Foundation, a think tank tackling digital rights through a gender lens, in 2012, winning her recognition as one of Time magazine’s next-generation leaders in 2015 and a Human Rights Tulip award in 2016.

She launched the cyberharassment helpline that same year, funding it with the 100,000 euros (US$108,000) in Tulip prize money.

The idea “came out of anger” at the violence women were suffering, she said.

The helpline receives up to 20 calls a day and the number is increasing.

Callers range from celebrities to poor women in deeply conservative areas whose male relatives do not allow them to leave their homes. Many call about the non-consensual publication of their intimate images.

The issue can be damaging enough to women in developed countries. In Pakistan, even less severe cases can see families forbidding women from attending school or forcing them into quick marriages to save their “honor,” while in the most severe it can be deadly.

Much of the work the helpline does is to explain to women what recourse they have.

More than three years on, the Tulip money has run out.

Now the helpline survives only by the grace of small grants from groups such as the Netherlands-based Digital Defenders Partnership, which supports rights advocates.

Much of Dad’s activism is rooted in what she describes as her “privilege” — having parents who, though illiterate themselves, fought to give their six children an education.

Her father defied more conservative relatives when he insisted she leave an abusive marriage, fight for custody of her son and study law at a co-ed university.

Listing other ways he has supported her, she smiled.

“It ... tells me that you don’t need all this education to be a feminist,” she said.

Now she feels she must do the same for others — but she is keenly aware that her work is dangerous.

Earlier generations of feminists took on state oppression. Her generation is confronting the issue in the home and the workplace, meaning it is no longer an abstract criticism for the men in their lives.

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title: Pakistan’s digital warrior battling the patriarchy


content_text:
Ordinary People and Independent Personalities party leader Igor Matovic prepares for a televised interview after elections on Sunday night in Bratislava.Photo: EPA-EFE
Slovakia’s center-right populist opposition on Sunday claimed victory in the nation’s parliamentary election, ending the reign of the long-dominant, but scandal-tainted leftist party in a move that analysts said showed a strong desire by voters to end corruption.

According to final results released by the Statistics Office, the Ordinary People group captured 25 percent of Saturday’s vote and 53 seats in the 150-seat parliament.

The senior ruling leftist Smer-Social Democracy party, led by former Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico, came in second with 18.3 percent, or 38 seats.

The results steered the nation to the right and could eventually make a local ally of France’s far-right National Rally party led by Marine Le Pen a part of Slovakia’s governing coalition.

PRO-WESTERN

“We will try to form the best government Slovakia’s ever had,” Ordinary People and Independent Personalities party leader Igor Matovic told 2,000 cheering supporters in a sports hall in his hometown of Trnava, northeast of the capital, Bratislava.

The pro-western Matovic, 46, has made fighting corruption and attacking Fico the central tenet of his campaign. He is likely to become the nation’s next prime minister.

Officials measured the temperature of every person coming into the hall due to fears about a novel coronavirus. Slovakia does not have any confirmed case.

The ruling Smer party has been in power for most of the past 14 years, winning big in every election since 2006 in Slovakia, an EU nation of almost 5.5 million people.

The party won 28.3 percent in 2016 after campaigning on an anti-migrant ticket, but it was damaged by political turmoil following the 2018 slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancee.

The killings of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, triggered major street protests and a political crisis that led to the collapse of Fico’s three-party coalition government.

Kuciak had been writing about alleged ties between the Italian mafia and people close to Fico when he was killed and also wrote about corruption scandals linked to Fico’s party.

A new Cabinet was made up of ministers from the same three parties.

“This was a clear vote against corruption practices of the ruling party, against the links between politicians and semi-mafia in this country and the quest for rule of law,” said Olga Gyarfasova, an analyst from Comenius University in Bratislava.

FAILED ALLIES

In a further blow to Smer, its two coalition partners, the ultranationalist Slovak National Party and a party of ethnic Hungarians, did not win any seats in parliament.

Matovic is expected to govern with the pro-business Freedom and Solidarity party, which captured 6.2 percent support and 13 seats, and the conservative For People established by former Slovakian president Andrej Kiska that finished with 5.8 percent of the vote and 12 seats.

Although the three parties would have a majority with 78 seats, Matovic said he also wanted to rule with Le Pen’s ally, We Are Family, a populist right-wing group that placed third in Saturday’s vote with 8.2 percent support and 17 seats.

“I’d like to assure everybody that there’s nothing to worry about,” he said. “We’re not here to fight cultural wars.”

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title: Slovakian populists win with vow to fight corruption


title: Hosts win nail-biter to make semis

content_text:
Australia’s Beth Mooney plays a shot against New Zealand in their Women’s Twenty20 World Cup match at Junction Oval in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday.Photo: EPA-EFE
A stylish 60 from Beth Mooney and controlled bowling yesterday kept intact Australia’s record of making at least the semi-finals of every Twenty20 World Cup in a nail-biting four-run win over New Zealand.

The defending champions and four-time winners joined India, England and South Africa in the semi-finals, with the games to be played in Sydney on Thursday.

Australia have been dominant since the World Cup was introduced 11 years ago, but were upset by India in the opening game of the tournament. Rattled, they bounced back emphatically against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, before narrowly accounting for their archrivals.

The White Ferns won the toss and bowled at Junction Oval in Melbourne, snaring an early breakthrough, but Australia have incredible depth in their batting and Mooney led them to a competitive 155-5.

Skipper Sophie Devine (31) and Katey Martin (37) led the chase, but Australia’s bowlers were up to the task, with spinner Georgia Wareham taking three crucial wickets.

“It was a crunch game and I thought we handled it really well,” Australia skipper Meg Lanning said. “I think we showed that we are able to be calm under the pump, we have done the basics right, which gives us confidence going into the semi-finals.”

One worry for Australia is the fitness of the world’s top Twenty20 all-rounder Ellyse Perry, who limped off while fielding, seemingly with a hamstring problem.

New Zealand removed the dangerous Alyssa Healy cheaply, with Lanning joining Mooney, but after an attacking 21 she was caught off Anna Peterson’s bowling.

Ashleigh Gardner (20) shared in a 52-run stand with Mooney, who brought up her fifth half-century in nine innings off 42 balls.

Playing in her 50th Twenty20, Moody finally departed for 60 to a spectacular catch on the boundary by Suzie Bates.

Perry (21) and Rachael Haynes (19) added crucial late runs to power the score past 150.

Rachel Priest looked dangerous as New Zealand set about the chase, hitting three quick fours, but she was undone by Jess Jonassen.

Australia piled the pressure on when Wareham snared world No. 1 Twenty20 batswoman Bates for 14, leaving them in trouble on 55-2 at the halfway mark.

Devine knew she had to take risks and after reaching 31 charged down the wicket to Wareham and was stumped.

Maddy Green took on the attack in a lightning 28, but Wareham again pounced, with her wickets proving vital as New Zealand fell short.

Earlier, Sri Lanka ended their tournament on a high with a crushing victory over Bangladesh in a fitting farewell to retiring veteran Shashikala Siriwardena, who bagged a tournament-best 4-16.

The clinical nine-wicket win was Sri Lanka’s first of the event to leave them fourth in Group A, with Bangladesh beaten in all four games to prop up the table.

While neither team could reach the knockouts, there was plenty at stake with the winner avoiding having to qualify for the 2022 tournament in South Africa by virtue of finishing as one of the top eight sides.

“Really happy with the performance,” said Sri Lanka captain Chamari Atapattu, who paid tribute to Siriwardena. “She’s a legend in Sri Lanka and she’s the big sister of the Sri Lankan team. I will miss her a lot, but she retired like a champion.”

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content_text:
RB Leipzig’s Patrick Schick celebrates scoring against Bayer 04 Leverkusen in their Bundesliga match at the Red Bull Arena in Leipzig, Germany, on Sunday.Photo: AP
RB Leipzig on Sunday lost ground on leaders Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga after battling to a 1-1 draw at home to a Kai Havertz-inspired Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

Leipzig are three points behind Bayern in second, with Borussia Dortmund one point further back.

Leipzig’s defense held firm at the start of the match amid wave after wave of attack led by Havertz, who eventually cut the ball back from the right flank for Leon Bailey to opening the scoring in the 30th minute.

It was the first time Leipzig — who went into the match with the stingiest defense in the Bundesliga — had conceded a goal in five games.

However, the hosts struck back immediately, with AS Roma loanee Patrick Schick heading in a lofted free-kick from Christopher Nkunku to make it 1-1 in the 32nd minute.

The goal, Schick’s third in five games, survived a check for handball by the video assistant referee.

Leverkusen striker Lucas Alario had a chance to make it 2-1 in the dying stages of the first half when he broke and found himself one-on-one with Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi, but hit his effort directly at the Hungarian.

The hosts started the second half the better of the two teams, but were unable to capitalize on the creativity of Emil Forsberg, with talisman Timo Werner hooked in the 71st minute after having an off day.

Havertz, who had one final chance to snare all three points for Leverkusen in the 75th minute, but was unable to control the ball with the goal beckoning, said he was disappointed not to get the win.

“When you look at the run of the match, it could have also been three points,” Havertz said. “In the first half, we weren’t clinical enough in front of goal, but we had a good match overall.”

Earlier, Wout Weghorst’s late header helped VfL Wolfsburg claw themselves back from two goals down to snatch a 2-2 draw at Union Berlin amid more protests against the German soccer association (DFB) and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim benefactor Dietmar Hopp.

In a dour first half punctuated by wind, heavy rain and fan protests, Union went 1-0 up in the 41st minute through Sebastian Andersson, who headed in a superb set-piece from Christopher Trimmel.

The match was then suspended for more than 10 minutes when Union Berlin’s hardcore ultras unfurled banners critical of the DFB, as well as several targeting billionaire Hopp.

Union players pleaded with home fans to remove the banners as the first half fizzled out.

They then came out for the second half with a bang, defender Marvin Friedrich heading in another set-piece from Trimmel to score his first Bundesliga goal.

However, Wolfsburg did not take long to hit back, with Yannick Gerhardt taking advantage of some sloppy defending to head the ball in.

With the clock winding down, Weghorst latched onto a cross from Joao Victor in the 81st minute to equalize.

Union coach Urs Fischer said not only were the banners inappropriate, but they interfered with his side’s ability to get the job done.

“I understand you want to show your opinion, but it should be with decency and respect. I didn’t see that in these banners,” Fischer said. “It was very uncomfortable for my boys — such an interruption can completely steer a game in the wrong direction. In my view, these banners were completely unnecessary.”

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title: Leipzig held by Leverkusen


content_text:
How to protect yourself from novel coronavirus

如何預防新型冠狀病毒感染

An information leaflet for travelers to Wuhan, China produced by the Centers for Disease Control. The leaflet says that to protect yourself from COVID-19 you should wash your hands frequently with soap, avoid animals (live or dead), avoid eating raw meat and eggs and avoid hospitals and traditional wet markets.
為避免冠狀病毒感染，應勤洗手、避免接觸動物及動物屍體，避免食用生肉生蛋、避免前往醫院及傳統市場。Photo courtesy of Taiwan Centers for Disease Control
照片：衛生福利部疾病管制署提供

 1

 2

 3

How does the coronavirus spread?

‧ The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak is a new illness and scientists are still assessing how it spreads from person to person, but similar viruses tend to spread via cough and sneeze droplets.

‧ When an infected person coughs or sneezes, they release droplets of saliva or mucus. These droplets can fall on people in the vicinity and can be either directly inhaled or picked up on the hands then transferred when someone touches their face, causing infection. For flu, some hospital guidelines define exposure as being within 2 meters of an infected person who sneezes or coughs for 10 minutes or longer.

‧ Viruses can also be spread through droplets landing on surfaces such as seats on buses or trains or desks in school. However, whether this is a main transmission route depends on how long viruses survive on surfaces – this can vary from hours to months.

‧ There is anecdotal evidence that the virus can be spread by people before they have symptoms. Some other illnesses such as flu can be passed from one person to another before symptoms occur — but the extent to which this is happening with COVID-19 is not well understood yet.

How to protect yourself and others

‧ Wash your hands: wet your hands with clean, running water and apply soap. Lather your hands, including the backs, between your fingers, and under your nails and scrub for at least 20 seconds. Rinse.

‧ Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, then throw the tissue in the bin and wash your hands. If you do not have a tissue to hand, cough or sneeze into your elbow rather than your hands.

‧ Face masks offer some protection as they block liquid droplets. However, they do not block smaller aerosol particles that can pass through the material of the mask. The masks also leave the eyes exposed and there is evidence that some viruses can infect a person through the eyes.

1. coronavirus n.

冠狀病毒

(guan4 zhuang4 bing4 du2)

2. spread v.

傳開；蔓延

(chuan2 kai1; man4 yan2)

3. droplet n.

飛沫；小滴

(fei1 mo4; xiao3 di1)

4. saliva n.

唾液

(tuo4 yi4)

5. mucus n.

黏液

(nian2 yi4)

6. infection n

感染

(gan2 ran3)

7. transmission route phr.

傳染途徑

(chuan2 ran3 tu2 jing4)

8. symptom n.

症狀

(zheng4 zhuang4)

‧ Seek early medical help if you have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, and share your travel history with healthcare providers.

‧ If visiting live markets in affected areas avoid direct, unprotected contact with live animals and surfaces that have been in contact with animals.

‧ If you are in an affected area avoid eating raw or undercooked animal products and exercise care when handling raw meat, milk or animal organs to avoid cross-contamination with uncooked foods.

‧ If you have returned from an affected area in the last two weeks, stay indoors and avoid contact with other people for 14 days. This means not going to work, school or public areas.

‧ If you have returned from an infected area and develop a high temperature, cough, runny nose, sore throat or difficulty breathing do not leave your home until you have been given advice by a doctor.

(The Guardian)

冠狀病毒是如何傳播的？

‧ 爆發疫情的COVID-19冠狀病毒是一種新疾病，科學家仍在評估它是如何在人與人之間傳播的，類似的病毒常是透過咳嗽和打噴嚏的飛沫傳播。

‧ 感染者咳嗽或打噴嚏時，會噴出唾液或黏液的飛沫。這些飛沫可能會落在附近的人身上，被直接吸入或沾到手上，然後在觸摸臉時帶到臉上而導致感染。就流感而言，一些醫院指南將「暴露」定義為：與連續打噴嚏或咳嗽十分鐘或更久的感染者，距離兩公尺以內。

‧ 病毒也可以透過掉落在物體表面的飛沫傳播，例如落在公共汽車、火車或學校課桌椅上的飛沫。但是，這是否成為病毒之主要傳播途徑，取決於該病毒在物體表面可存活時間之長短──從數小時至數月不等。

‧ 有傳聞證據顯示，該病毒可能有無症狀傳播的情況。有些疾病（例如流感），可以讓被感染的人在出現症狀前就傳染給別人──但COVID-19冠狀病毒無症狀傳染的程度仍然不明。

如何保護自己與他人

‧ 洗手：用乾淨的自來水洗手，並使用肥皂。將雙手（包括手背）、指縫以及指甲內搓揉起泡沫，搓洗至少二十秒鐘。然後沖水。

‧ 咳嗽或打噴嚏時，用衛生紙遮住口鼻，然後將衛生紙丟進垃圾桶並洗手。如果你沒有衛生紙，咳嗽或打噴嚏時請用手肘彎掩住，而不要用手。

‧ 口罩可以阻擋飛沫，因此可提供一定的保護。但口罩無法阻隔更小的、可穿過口罩材料的氣溶膠分子。口罩也無法保護到眼睛──有證據顯示某些病毒可透過眼睛感染人。


content_text:
The Volkswagen Taigun compact sports utility vehicle is unveiled at an event in New Delhi on Feb. 3. The German automaker, among other global companies, has been accused of using forced labor in China.Photo: Reuters
China is transferring tens of thousands of Uighur detainees out of internment camps and into factories that supply some of the world’s leading brands, an Australian think tank said yesterday.

Top global brands, such as Apple, BMW and Sony, have been accused of getting supplies from factories using the forced labor, an explosive allegation that could reverberate in boardrooms across the world.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute said that the Chinese government has transferred 80,000 or more Uighurs out of camps in Xinjiang and into factories across the country.

“Uighurs are working in factories that are in the supply chains of at least 83 well-known global brands in the technology, clothing and automotive sectors,” the think tank said.

“Some factories across China are using forced Uighur labor under a state-sponsored labor transfer scheme that is tainting the global supply chain,” it said.

The brands included “Apple, BMW, Gap, Huawei, Nike, Samsung, Sony and Volkswagen,” it added.

“Companies using forced Uighur labor in their supply chains could find themselves in breach of laws which prohibit the importation of goods made with forced labor or mandate disclosure of forced labor supply chain risks,” the report said.

“The companies listed in this report should conduct immediate and thorough human rights due diligence on their factory labor in China, including robust and independent social audits and inspections,” it said.

An estimated 1 million mostly Muslim ethnic minorities have been held in internment camps in Xinjiang.

After initially denying their existence, Beijing cast the facilities as “vocational education centers” where “students” learn Mandarin and job skills in an effort to steer them away from religious extremism, terrorism and separatism.

Rights groups and witnesses accuse China of forcibly trying to draw Uighurs away from their Islamic customs and integrate them into the majority Han culture.

‘SURPLUS’ LABOR

Officially, the Chinese government has said it is transferring “surplus” Xinjiang labor to other regions in the name of poverty alleviation.

According to official news agency Xinhua, more than 25,000 workers from Xinjiang were slated to be transferred “inland” last year.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Xinjiang government did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

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title: Global brands accused of using forced labor in China


content_text:
Pete Buttigieg exits Democratic race

BIDEN BOON?Donald Trump said that all of Buttigieg’s Super Tuesday votes would go to the former vice president, who is still in the race for the Democratic nomination
Former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg attends a Bloody Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on Sunday.Photo: AFP
Former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg on Sunday ended his presidential campaign after failing to secure a to win the Democratic nomination.

“Tonight, I am making the difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the presidency,” he told a crowd in South Bend, adding: “I will do everything in my power to ensure we that have a new Democratic president come January” next year.

His decision came only a month after he won the delegate race in the Iowa caucuses and his campaign hoped that victory would propel him to national frontrunner status. It was enough to push him into a close second place to US Senator Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire, but the success failed to help him as the nominating contest moved to other states.

Ultimately, his fourth-place finish in South Carolina proved to be the final blow to his candidacy.

The decision to drop out just before Super Tuesday today, when voters in 14 states go to the polls, is a potential boon for former US vice president Joe Biden, who is looking for Democrats to unite behind his campaign in an effort to blunt Sanders’ momentum.

Sanders on Sunday congratulated Buttigieg on running “a brilliant campaign” and invited his former rival’s supporters to join his campaign.

“I just want to welcome all of his supporters into our movement and to urge them to joining us in the fight for real change in this country,” Sanders said.

US President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter that “all of his Super Tuesday votes will go to Sleepy Joe Biden. Great timing. This is the REAL beginning of the Dems taking Bernie out of play — NO NOMINATION, AGAIN!”

Buttigieg held a brief call with some of his major donors just before making his announcement, according to a donor on the call.

The donor said Buttigieg read a statement, but kept it short. Many of the donors were angry to have learned of Buttigieg’s decision from media reports and said they felt blindsided by the move.

Buttigieg’s biography made him something of a wunderkind among the Democratic contenders. He graduated from Harvard University and was a Rhodes Scholar. He was the youngest mayor of a city with a population over 100,000 when he was elected at age 29, and is a veteran of the US war in Afghanistan

On the campaign trail, Buttigieg presented himself as a representative of a younger generation ready to take over from septuagenarians such as Sanders and Biden. He also touted his service as a US Navy intelligence officer, including his duty in Afghanistan, which he said gave him credibility on national security.

He scoffed during last week’s presidential debate in Charleston, South Carolina, about Sanders’ praise for former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, saying the party could not win by displaying nostalgia for the 1960s.

The candidate’s cerebral approach to issues and ability to speak several languages drew an enthusiastic response with some audiences, but failed to connect with the wider Democratic electorate. Though he was able to fund raise large amounts — he brought in the second-biggest haul of any candidate last year behind Sanders — by the end of his run the campaign was bleeding cash.

Buttigieg’s lack of experience beyond the local level also drew scrutiny from other candidates in a race focused on electability and unseating Trump. Buttigieg easily lost an election to become state treasurer of Indiana in 2010, and in 2017 withdrew his bid for chair of the Democratic National Committee on the day of the election.

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title: Pete Buttigieg exits Democratic race


people: 蔡英文 曹啟鴻

content_text:
Among Taiwan’s state-run enterprises, Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar) has been more agile in its corporate transformation and has the most diverse business operation.

Apart from pig farming, orchid cultivation and biotech product development, Taisugar also tried running a hypermarket chain — Taisuco, which was closed in June last year — and gas stations. Seen in this light, the company’s decision to enter the green energy market came as no surprise.

An opinion piece published in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Feb. 21 indicates that Taisugar is planning to construct solar energy facilities on the company’s reforestation land, which covers hundreds of hectares in Pingtung County, but cutting down trees to install renewable energy is absurd.

In addition to providing sustainable energy, the development of renewable energy serves a more important purpose: reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As thick tree foliage contributes to carbon fixation and helps curb greenhouse gases as well as improve air pollution, turning forest land into a base for solar energy facilities will cost more than it is worth.

Taisugar’s former chairman Charles Huang (黃育徵) played an important role in pushing for the circular economy promoted by President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration. During his chairmanship, Huang pushed for the establishment of circular agricultural economy parks and transformed the company’s Dong Hai Feng Pig Farm in Pingtung County into the nation’s first ecological livestock farm.

The farm incorporates the nation’s first ecological hog farm, which includes biogas power generation, solar-powered pigsties and circular facilities for organic resources and serves as a circular economy model. More importantly, the company owns a large plot of forest land around the farm. Biogas residues and slurry resulting from the anaerobic fermentation of pig manure and urine for biogas production can be turned into organic fertilizers and reused for the land. No other hog farms operate under the same conditions.

Biogas residues and slurry created from anaerobic fermentation contain an abundance of organic matter that is ideal as agricultural fertilizer.

For ordinary farmland, however, there are limits for the total amount of biogas residues and slurry that can be used as fertilizer depending on the kind of crop, not to mention that fertilization does not apply to every season.

This explains the major difficulty encountered by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and the Council of Agriculture in recent years when they have been promoting the reuse of livestock manure wastewater — and biogas residues and slurry — as fertilizer for agricultural land: the difficulty of balancing supply from livestock farms with the demand for biogas residues and slurry for agricultural land.

Taisugar does not have to worry about this problem, because it has both pig farms and forest land.

Pingtung County is a major pig farming county, and pollution caused by wastewater discharged by pig farms constitutes an environmental problem that has been bothering government agencies.

Starting with former Pingtung County commissioner Tsao Chi-hung’s (曹啟鴻) term in office, the county government has been taking proactive measures to deal with the issue, such as guiding pig farmers to generate biogas power.

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title: Taisugar should focus on biogas


content_text:
Dutch plan to cultivate wind farm talent

COOPERATION:The Dutch government has approved a plan to fund institutions to cultivate 20 trainers to foster Taiwanese talent in the burgeoning industry
Netherlands Trade and Investment Office Representative Guy Wittich, center, holds a sign with National Taiwan University vice president Chen Ming-syan, left, Bureau of Energy Chief Secretary Weng Su-chen, second left, Metal Industries Research and Development Center president Lin Chiu-feng, second right, and other and guests at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.Photo: CNA
The Netherlands Trade and Investment Office (NTIO) yesterday launched a program to cultivate trainers for the nation’s offshore wind power industry, with National Taiwan University (NTU) serving as the leader among its academic partners.

More than 30 Dutch enterprises have been drawn to Taiwan’s offshore wind farm industry, with more than 10 currently involved in local wind farm projects, but they face a shortage of talent, NTIO Representative Guy Wittich told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.

Wittich added that he realized the challenges the industry faces, especially with the inauguration of the nation’s first offshore wind farm, Formosa 1, off the coast of Miaoli County in November last year.

Considering the importance of talent cultivation and the rapport between the Netherlands and Taiwan, the Dutch government has approved a program to fund institutions to work with their Taiwanese counterparts to develop trainers for the industry, he said.

Through the program, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, the Wind Energy Institute at the Delft University of Technology, and water research institute Deltares are to design training courses in cooperation with NTU and the Metal Industries Research and Development Center, he said.

The program aims to cultivate 20 trainers, following previous collaborative programs on promoting maintenance and operation training in 2016 to 2017, Wittich said, thanking the Taiwanese government for its willingness to promote public-private partnerships and work with foreign firms and institutions.

As the lead domestic academic participant in the program, NTU two years ago established a curricular program on offshore wind power generation and last year sent a delegation to the Netherlands to meet with experts in the field, NTU vice president Chen Ming-syan (陳銘憲) said.

The training courses include general wind farm, metocean and seabed data analysis, offshore wind farm project development, wind turbine design, maintenance and operation, said Chiang Mao-hsiung (江茂雄), chair of the Department of Engineering Science and Ocean Engineering and the university’s representative to manage the program.

CWind Taiwan (臺英風電) founder Vincent Tsai (蔡明格), who was a student of Chiang’s, said that many graduates of the ocean engineering department — previously known as the shipbuilding department — had decided to work in the semiconductor industry instead because of the better pay.

However, students trained in ocean engineering can now apply their learning to the offshore wind power industry, which has a serious shortage of bue and white-collar workers, he said.

In addition to NTU, other schools in central and southern Taiwan, including National Cheng Kung University, National Sun Yat-sen University and Cheng Shiu University, are to join the project for talent cultivation and technique localization, center president Lin Chiu-feng (林秋豐) said.

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Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine director-general Tu Wen-jane speaks at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.Photo: CNA
Pet dogs and cats can be tested for COVID-19 and results can be known within 24 hours, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday, but added that such testing is not necessary unless required by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).

The Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department on Friday announced that a pet dog tested weak positive for COVID-19, raising concerns about the possibility of infections of dogs and cats.

The council on Sunday said that there have been no reports of house pets or other domesticated animals having been infected with COVID-19, or any evidence that the virus could spread from pets to humans.

Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine director-general Tu Wen-jane (杜文珍) yesterday reiterated the position after a meeting with quarantine officials, veterinarians and other experts.

Despite the low risk, the council has set up a procedure for testing tissue samples from pets, with the process similar to that for humans, said Lee Fan (李璠), a researcher at the council’s Animal Health Research Institute.

Dogs and cats might be tested for the virus when the CECC confirms that their owners have been infected and when the animals also show symptoms, Lee said, adding that the institute would not conduct such tests unless required to by the CECC.

There is also no scientific literature showing that pet dogs or cats contracting SARS “under natural circumstances” over the past 17 years, National Taiwan University veterinary medicine professor Liu Chen-hsuan (劉振軒) said.

Dogs and cats exhibit symptoms similar to those of humans when they catch a cold, but it is not known whether that is also the case in COVID-19, given that animals have different receptors, he said.

The pets of people under home quarantine should be separated from their owners, just like their relatives, the council said.

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title: Virus Outbreak: Dogs, cats can be tested for virus if needed: COA


title: CIB cautions over gambling jobs in the Philippines

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Taiwanese thinking about applying for jobs in the gambling industry in the Philippines should be aware that many of the companies involved are operating illegally, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Sunday.

Gambling in the Philippines is legal only within designated areas, and many firms in the sector lack the required government permits, the bureau said in a news release.

Many Taiwanese employed in illegal online gambling businesses in the Philippines have found themselves caught up in pay disputes, falling victim to loan sharks and some have been physically abused or held for ransom, it said.

In the first two months of this year alone, the bureau’s liaison officer in Manila, in cooperation with Philippine law enforcement, rescued three Taiwanese working in the sector who had been abducted and held for ransom.

There were 12 such cases last year and 11 the year before, the bureau said.

One recent case involved a man who was allegedly abducted and beaten after he got into a dispute with the illegal gambling company he was working for.

The man telephoned the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines asking for help, saying his salary was being withheld, the bureau said.

Taiwanese should carefully check the background of gambling enterprises in the Philippines before accepting jobs with them, and they should make sure they understand the terms of their employment contracts, it said, adding that they should make sure that their employer has processed their work visas and other documents.

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Virus Outbreak: Chinese biotech firm censured for false claim on virus drug

A Chinese biotech company that claimed to be able to manufacture an experimental drug from Gilead Sciences Inc with the potential to treat COVID-19 was censured for disclosing inaccurate information.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange on Sunday said in a statement that BrightGene Bio-Medical Technology Co (博瑞生物醫藥) has not gained approval from China’s drug regulator to make the drug known as remdesivir, which is seen as the leading candidate in the race to finding a treatment for the virus that has now infected more than 88,000 and killed more than 3,000.

BrightGene also has not been licensed by the patent owner — Gilead — to make the drug, nor has it obtained “the relevant qualifications” for mass production of the therapy, the stock exchange said. Shares fell by the daily limit of 20 percent intraday yesterday.

Gilead’s experimental drug, which has not been licensed or approved for use anywhere in the world, is being tested in clinical trials at hospitals in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as in other Asian nations.

BrightGene’s announcement on Feb. 12 that it had managed to manufacture remdesivir in mass quantities garnered global headlines and sent its stock up nearly 60 percent last month to touch a record high.

The stock exchange’s reprimand comes as concerns grow that researchers and drugmakers in China and elsewhere are seizing on the global panic around the growing epidemic to get attention for less-than-credible scientific work.

BrightGene, for example, had only been able to make remdesivir in a small quantity for clinical research and not commercial production, and its elision of this difference led to the spread of “unclear, inaccurate information,” the stock exchange said.

BrightGene board secretary Wang Zhengye (王征野), who gave interviews to local media outlets saying that the company’s drug was not for just for laboratory use but for mass production, was also reprimanded by the exchange.

Exuberance among investors and medical firms around the development of treatments and vaccines is running the risk of becoming irrational and diverting resources from the most crucial scientific work.

Nearly 300 clinical trials have been registered in China so far to study the efficacy of various coronavirus treatments from Gilead’s remdesivir and AbbVie Inc’s anti-HIV therapy Kaletra, to traditional Chinese medicine and even soy milk.

The design and execution of some of these trials have raised concerns among scientists, a Chinese Journal of Epidemiology article published last week said.

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content_text:
Finance firms ready for coronavirus escalation

STAFF SEPARATION:Shin Kong Financial, which is headquartered near Taipei Railway Station, has made a building in New Taipei City its second headquarters
Local financial services companies have made contingency plans to address a widening outbreak of COVID-19, which include their employees being required to work remotely or from home.

Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the nation’s largest financial services company by assets, last week moved some staff from Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) headquarters to other locations, spokesman Daniel Teng (鄧崇儀) told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday.

“We want to reduce the possibility of an internal large-scale contagion and cross-contamination by having people in the same department work in different locations,” Teng said.

The company would ask more employees, particularly those in its information technology (IT) and corporate planning departments, to work from home should the government confirm community-level transmission, he said.

Cathay Financial has prohibited its employees from making business trips to China, Hong Kong and Macau, and has demanded that they inform the company of any trips to other high-risk areas such as Japan, he said.

The company would continue to pay employees subject to quarantine measures, he added.

“If employees at one branch cannot work due to the outbreak, we will transfer staff from other branches to provide support. We cannot just shut down branches,” Teng said.

The company would aim to continue to provide all its services and would adjust its measures as necessary, he said.

CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) and Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) have implemented similar plans, the companies said.

“As the trading room and IT department are important to the company, we have divided traders working at headquarters into two groups and moved them to different locations. We plan to implement the same measure for the IT department,” CTBC spokeswoman Chiu Ya-ling (邱雅玲) said by telephone.

Shin Kong Financial, which is headquartered near Taipei Railway Station, has made a building in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) its second headquarters.

Many employees have moved to the Banciao District building, Shin Kong Financial senior vice president Sunny Hsu (徐順鋆) said, adding that the company has also canceled all face-to-face meetings and is holding videoconference calls instead.

The company said it would halt the operations of a branch to “completely disinfect the area,” if an employee was found to be infected or was placed under quarantine, while transferring healthy staff to other branches for a short period, Hsu said.

CTBC Financial has not made specific plans for affected branches, but would comply with Central Epidemic Command Center instructions, Chiu said.

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title: Huawei works around US ban by using its own chips

content_text:
Huawei Technologies Co (華為), the Chinese technology giant barred from doing business with US suppliers, is finding a way around the strict limits imposed by US President Donald Trump’s administration.

The US Department of Commerce, citing national security concerns, has largely forbidden US companies from selling Huawei the computer chips it needs to make a piece of equipment integral to newly introduced high-speed wireless networks.

In response, China’s largest technology company ramped up its own capabilities to manufacture the gear, which is known as a base station.

In a sign that the self-reliance is working, Huawei in the fourth quarter of last year sold more than 50,000 of these next-generation base stations that were free of US technology, said Tim Danks, the US-based Huawei executive responsible for partner relations.

That is only about 8 percent of the total base stations that Huawei has sold as of last month, but the company is quickly ramping up at its secretive HiSilicon division to make more of these American component-free devices, Danks said.

“It’s still our intention to return to using US technology,” he said.

The longer Huawei goes without access to US suppliers, the more unlikely it is to be able to return to using them, Danks added.

A base station is a typically suitcase-sized piece of machinery that is used to help connect cellphones to fixed-line networks carrying Internet traffic, and it is an essential ingredient in the next generation of mobile networks — 5G.

Popular among telecoms, Huawei’s base stations are widely considered among the most reliable for the price.

US officials accuse Huawei of stealing valuable intellectual property and breaching a trade embargo with Iran.

The Trump administration blacklisted the company last year, saying that there is a risk Huawei could give Beijing access to sensitive data coursing through telecommunications networks that employ its gear.

Huawei has denied the allegations.

Critics have also said that the US government imposed the sanctions to hobble China’s leadership in key aspects of 5G technology.

As of early last month, Huawei had shipped about 600,000 5G base stations to mobile phone companies racing to upgrade networks to the new standard, which is designed to deliver data at faster speeds to a broad range of wirelessly connected devices — not just mobile handsets.

Most of these base stations were made using stockpiled chips bought before the ban.

While Huawei does not disclose its suppliers, base stations typically rely on a kind of processor called a field-programmable gate array that is made by Intel Corp, a chipmaking colossus based in Santa Clara, California, and Xilinx Inc, in neighboring San Jose.

Those chips provide flexibility that makes it easier to update machines as new standards and features are added.

Huawei’s chips are application-specific, meaning they are tailored to particular functions and it takes more time and money to replace them. That is a disadvantage at a time when new technology, such as 5G, is in its infancy and still subject to big changes.

The US initially clamped down on all shipments of US supplies to Huawei, which had spent more than US$10 billion a year on US products, but later began making some exceptions.

Xilinx and fellow chipmakers Micron Technology Inc and Broadcom Inc have all reported falling earnings on reduced or eliminated sales to Huawei.

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The computer-simulated section of this year’s Han Kuang military exercises could be postponed due to the COVID-19 situation, Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) said yesterday.

“We are evaluating the possibility of pushing it back to the second half of the year,” Yen said.

The annual Han Kuang military exercise consists of two stages: computer-simulated war games followed by live-fire drills.

The computerized war games were scheduled for next month, but the ministry is now considering a postponement because they are staged in an enclosed venue and attended by top military officials, Yen said.

He did not say whether the ministry was considering postponing the live-fire drills, which are scheduled for May.

Separately, the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) said it has postponed the final qualification tournament for the Tokyo Olympics to June because of the coronavirus.

The six-team event, which was scheduled for April 1 to 5 in Taiwan, was moved to June 17 to 21 to safeguard the health of players, personnel and spectators, the WBSC said.

The virus, which originated in China late last year, has killed more than 3,000 people, infected more than 89,000 globally and has forced the cancelation or postponement of numerous sporting and other events.

“After consulting with medical and governmental authorities, a joint decision by the WBSC and the local organizing committee was taken to postpone the event,” the WBSC said in a statement.

Taiwan, Australia, China, the Netherlands and the teams that finish second and third in the March 22 to 26 WBSC Americas qualifier in the US are to compete.

Four countries — Japan, Israel, South Korea and Mexico — have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, which are to begin on July 24. The winner of the Americas qualifer is to take the fifth berth, while the tournament in Taiwan is to decide the final place.

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title: Virus Outbreak: War games move mulled


title: Some would rather speak English with you

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The spread of COVID-19 adds to the Taiwanese mentality of hating to be mistaken for Chinese. There are discussions about speaking Taiwanese instead of Mandarin in public while abroad to avoid such annoyance. How effective that would be is another matter.

More worth noting is that foreigners in Taiwan do not necessarily please local people by speaking their hard-learned Mandarin to them.

Taiwanese language identity does not suddenly change due to a disease outbreak. It has evolved a lot since democratization.

In January last year, the National Languages Development Act (國家語言發展法) came into force. The law acknowledges that all — more than a dozen — native languages of Taiwan are of equal status to Mandarin and mandates the state to take measures to preserve and revive them.

It is widely taken for granted that people in Taiwan speak Mandarin. That is very much real, but not in a pleasant sense.

The language was hardly spoken by anyone on the island before the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) brought it here at the end of the World War II. It was later imposed by the authoritarian regime as the dominant tongue at the expense of all Taiwanese languages.

Now as Taiwanese identity grows, there have been signs of a revival of native languages, especially of the most spoken one, Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), or Tei-gi (台語).

Suppose a foreigner and a Taiwanese both speak English and Mandarin. A choice has to be made over which language to use in their conversation.

The common wisdom is that the foreigner could show respect and friendliness by speaking the “local” language, but considering the trend described above, whether Mandarin is the language the local speaker identifies with is increasingly in doubt.

Foreign visitors have insisted on speaking Mandarin to me. Some of them might have found that I was not as impressed as they expected.

I have heard foreigners asking: “Why do Taiwanese speak English to me while I speak Mandarin?”

They have a point, certainly.

Some, Westerners and Taiwanese alike, mockingly say that many Taiwanese are eager to “practice” English when they see Western people. According to that view, Taiwanese who prefer to speak English with Westerners who can speak Mandarin on Taiwan’s soil seem to lack cultural self-esteem.

Yet the story can be different. I would be thrilled if you spoke Taiwanese. That is not a usual thing to expect. So speaking English is totally fine.

Linguistic imperialism? Do not worry. In Taiwan’s context if an imperialist language were to be named, it is Mandarin, not English.

Recently a popped rice seller in his 30s called A-hua-sai (阿華師), who speaks fluent English, Taiwanese and Hakka and declared that he would quit Mandarin for life, has become popular on the Internet.

Taiwanese are friendly and tolerant. I am not warning foreigners against speaking Mandarin. Still, the change of attitude toward Mandarin is something to watch.

If English speakers would like to learn some basic Taiwanese, the Web site bitesizetaiwanese.com can be recommended. It is newly created by young people.

Tsiu Ing-sing is a merchant based in Taipei.

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people: 王定宇 陳時中 馬英九 林俊憲

content_text:
The COVID-19 outbreak in China has renewed the debate over whether Chinese should be allowed to use the National Health Insurance (NHI) system.

Much of the controversy centers on a Taiwanese teenager who has hemophilia and lives in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak, with his mother, a Chinese who obtained Republic of China (ROC) citizenship through a previous marriage.

Just as the teenager ran out of medication for the disease, the Taiwanese government sent a flight to Chengdu, China, to bring the mother and son to Taiwan, where he has since been on steady medication.

The source of controversy was a decision made by the administration of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in 2015 that relaxed the rules on Chinese citizens’ eligibility for the NHI system by broadening the scope of resident certificates to include entry permits awarded to Chinese who are married to Taiwanese or are in the nation “visiting a relative.” The move was a clear violation of due legislative procedure and widely panned as overstepping the National Health Insurance Act (全民健康保險法). It also means that Chinese enjoy the same healthcare benefits as Taiwanese as long as they are given a residency certificate for visiting their Taiwanese step-parent.

According to statistics compiled by the National Health Insurance Administration, about 63,000 Chinese benefited from the rule change in 2015, which in turn increased NHI expenditure by NT$31.5 million (US$1.05 million at the current exchange rate).

In the wake of the controversy, lawmakers in the pan-green camp have issued calls for the rule to be abolished or amended, with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) and Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) vowing to close the loophole in the NHI system created by Ma’s administration.

Meanwhile, DPP Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) recommended amending the act to raise the NHI premiums for those who do not live in the nation for at least 183 days annually.

He proposed that the NHI rates for these people be set in proportion to their annual income overseas, which could see the monthly premiums of high-income earners raised from NT$749 to NT$12,000 — the highest possible rate under the insurance system in the absence of premium allocations from a local employer or the government.

The proposals to rectify the problem deserve praise, but with the DPP having been the ruling party for almost four years, such calls are long overdue.

Any government would adopt a hardline stance if a lobbyist called for a person of another nationality to enjoy the same social welfare as its citizens, so it makes no sense for Chinese to use the NHI just because they are visiting a relative and need an extended stay in the nation.

It defies the logic of any sensible government, and if any Chinese had thought about exploiting this rule, they would have succeeded if Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) last month had not overturned a Mainland Affairs Council policy that would allow the Chinese children of Taiwanese and Chinese couples to return from China.

The Mainland Affairs Council in the frequently asked questions section of its Web site states that any Chinese spouse who has not renounced their People’s Republic of China citizenship will have their ROC citizenship rescinded, so the debate of whether Chinese should be allowed to use the NHI is a non-starter, and should be responded to with a resounding “no.”

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title: EDITORIAL: NHI rule on Chinese needs fixing


content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Adimmune to use NHRI lab to test coronavirus vaccine

PROGRESS:The Taichung-based firm has designed and produced four prototypes of antigens to fight the virus and aims to run an animal test in the second quarter
Vaccine maker Adimmune Corp (國光生技) expects to speed up its development of a vaccine for COVID-19 after it signed a letter of intent with the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) on Thursday, enabling it to utilize a biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) lab belonging to the NHRI.

Adimmune spokesman Pan Fei (潘飛) told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday that BSL-3 labs are used for clinical, diagnostic or research programs that work on microbes that can cause a serious or potentially lethal disease through inhalation and might contaminate the environment.

Although Adimmune specializes in researching and producing flu vaccines, it has no BSL-3 facility given that flu viruses are less deadly and treatment is already available, Pan said.

“However, as the novel coronavirus is highly contagious and more lethal than the flu, we believe our tests should be conducted in a BSL-3 lab,” Pan said.

The Taichung-based firm has managed to design and produce four prototypes of antigens to fight the virus based on its recombinant protein technology, after it gained the genetic sequence of COVID-19 from the US Centers for Disease Control in early January, Pan said.

“As the genetic sequence we got is for the whole of the virus, we had to analyze the specific genes of the spike protein, a key protein that the coronavirus uses to invade human cells,” he said.

It is important to find the spike protein to develop antigens for the vaccines, as the special protein induces immune responses in humans, he said.

Even though the novel coronavirus’ genetic sequence is similar to that of the SARS and the MERS viruses, their spike proteins all have different shapes and target different human cells, Pan said.

“Now, we have four different prototypes of the antigens and will run tests on them in the NHRI’s advanced lab,” he said.

Adimmune aims to maintain its goal of running an animal test in the second quarter, Pan said.

The company spent about NT$18 million (US$597,530) on developing a vaccine against SARS in 2003 and received a government subsidy of NT$9 million afterward, corporate data showed.

“It is difficult to predict how much would be spent [on developing a vaccine for COVID-19]. The cost would surge if we began human trials. It would mainly depend on how long the epidemic lasts and government policy,” Pan said.

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title: 雙贏彩第109053期頭獎摃龜

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title: 威力彩第109018期開獎


content_text: （中央社記者鍾榮峰台北2日電）被動元件大廠國巨今 天公告張嵐菁新任國巨財務長，今天起生效。     市場人士表示，張嵐菁畢業於台大會計暨管理決策 組碩士，取得美國長島大學會計碩士，經歷包括曾任安 永聯合會計師事務所審計服務會計師暨營運長，2018年 加入渣打國際商業銀行財務處，擔任資深副總暨會計主 管。     市場人士指出，國巨財務長一職從2014年之後空缺 至今。（編輯：楊玫寧）1090302...

title: 國巨財務長 張嵐菁出任


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title: 威力彩第109018期頭獎摃龜


title: 復工沒訂單更焦慮　中國民企老闆吐心聲

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title: 雙贏彩第109053期開獎


content_text:
（中央社記者潘智義台北2日電）武漢肺炎疫情未平， 製鞋大廠寶成工業今天指出，除影響中國大陸市場銷售 通路之外，目前在中國各工廠的復工率約7至9成，若上 游鞋材供應不足，將評估擴大在東南亞採購。

寶成解釋，中國大陸製鞋廠各工廠復工率不一，但 所謂復工率是以實際上生產線工作為準，復工率7至9成 ，對供貨而言應該已經不是問題；現階段比較擔心的是 上游鞋材供應，若鞋材無法順利供貨，恐怕就必須和客 戶協商延遲出貨。

不過，和寶成一樣，上游鞋材廠在東南亞也有工廠 ，寶成已協調上游業者，若有必要可在東南亞增加鞋材 量，並擴大東南亞製鞋廠的生產。

寶成日前發布重大訊息，代子公司裕元工業及寶勝 國際公告指出，裕元工業已密切聯繫供應商，致力確保 原材料供應，以及尋求增加從中國大陸以外供應商採購 替代方案。

裕元工業位於中國大陸生產基地，除湖北省的生產 線因當地政府要求，延遲復工日期至3月11日而尚未復 工外，已大致恢復運作。由於某些地區因當地政府實施 交通及人流管制措施，部分員工仍未能按原定計畫返回 工廠上班。

疫情發生前，寶成旗下負責製造的裕元工業，在中 國大陸生產出貨量占其總量約13%，其中湖北省生產出 貨量占其總量不到2%。（編輯：林孟汝）1090302

title: 寶成：若鞋材供應不足 不排除擴大東南亞採購