Expert: Coronavirus acting like bacteria ― greater health hazard

Shincheonji Church founder Lee Man-hee speaks to the media about mass infections among his members. Korea Times

By Oh Young-jin

The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak is caused by a new coronavirus ― still a virus.

But calling it a "cryptic virus," as little is understood about it, virologist Dr. Hakim Djaballah raises the possibility it is acting like a bacterium, meaning it could be more contagious and last longer in the environment

"This evolving virus could have developed a symbiotic relationship with common bacteria found everywhere ― in homes, in metro stations, in restaurants, on plane seats and others," Djaballah told The Korea Times. "The virus has now turned some of these harmless bacteria into pathogenic bacteria or virulent bacteria, and it has gone into stealth mode, living undetected and protected by them."

He said not much is known about the virus, which is traveling quickly around the world, with not much known about its transmission methods understood.

There is a similarity between Italy and Daegu. In Italy, it took 11 days for confirmed cases to rocket to more than 2,000. In Korea, it took 12 days for cases to rise to 3,600 after a woman, 61, from the Shincheonji Church religious cult was identified as "patient zero" for a mass infection among members. Cases in the rest of the country were tallied at 900-plus in the first 44 days.

Djaballah said that in Italy and Daegu, the authorities failed to establish how the first patient contracted the virus.

Masked revelers take part in the "Plague Procession" in St. Mark's Square in Venice, Feb. 25, during a previous celebration of the city's carnival festivities that have been cancelled this year following the coronavirus outbreak. AP-Yonhap

This prompted him to theorize as follows:

"The virus has now turned some of these harmless bacteria into pathogenic bacteria or virulent bacteria, and it has gone into stealth mode, living undetected and protected by them.

"This new ecosystem, due to the virus' adaptive response through random mutations acquiring the correct ones to infect these bacteria, means that the virus can now easily infect many more people than ever before; with 4,285 cases reported in 12 days for Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province versus fewer than 900 cases nationwide in 44 days. The Daegu infection trend looks more like a bacterial outbreak within a very tight church community."

Pointing out the growing list of unexplained cases, he said the most probable explanation was that these patients came into contact with these pathogenic bacteria harboring the SARS-CoV2 virus.

The Korean Centers for Disease Control (KCDC) has not investigated and tested whether these surface-growing bacteria do contain the SARS-CoV2 virus, especially in hot-spot clusters; one place to look is the Shincheonji Church, followed by the house of the female "super infecter," Djaballah said.

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