A Special Article by Professor Hsu Jui-xiang of National Taiwan University | The Virus Isn't Going Away—Keep Eating Reishi Mushrooms!

Oral Review/ Xu Ruixiang; Interview and Compilation/ Wu Tingyao

★This article was originally published on Lingzhi News Network and is reprinted here with the author’s permission.

For individuals, getting vaccinated is about “increasing sensitivity”—boosting your body’s sensitivity and specific recognition of that virus. For an entire region, vaccination aims to establish regional defense (herd immunity): as more people become sensitized, each person’s immune system will be better equipped to quickly neutralize the virus, block its transmission routes, and prevent further spread of the infection.

Whether this lofty goal can be achieved in the face of the COVID-19 virus remains unknown and is still unfolding; for now, we can only proceed cautiously, feeling our way forward. However, Taiwan’s more than thirty years of experience in administering the hepatitis B vaccine is indeed worth considering.

The reason Taiwan has managed to virtually eliminate hepatitis B virus transmission among the next generation—reducing the prevalence rate among six-year-old children from over 10% to just 0.8%—is entirely attributable to the newborn hepatitis B vaccination program launched in 1984, which is dedicated to blocking the primary route of hepatitis B virus transmission: mother-to-child vertical transmission.

Up until now, every child has been given the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, and a second dose of the hepatitis B vaccine has been administered at one month and six months of age.

According to the results of the immunization record card checks for newly enrolled elementary school students, as many as 99% of Taiwanese children have completed the three-dose hepatitis B vaccination series.

In theory, after receiving these three doses of the vaccine, the body should have sufficient antibodies to provide lifelong immunity against the hepatitis B virus. However, in practice, 40% of children who have received all three doses no longer test positive for hepatitis B antibodies by the time they reach age 15; and by the time they reach age 20, the proportion of those with undetectable hepatitis B antibodies rises to as high as 70%.

What does this tell us?

Getting vaccinated once or twice doesn't confer lifelong immunity against the virus.

What should I do if I can’t detect antibodies? Should I get another dose of the vaccine to “reawaken immune memory”?

You can’t just keep going there forever to get antibody tests and vaccinations, can you!

Moreover, if there’s virtually no hepatitis B virus around you in your daily life, what’s the point of reactivating such immune memory? It would only make sense if you were heading to an area where hepatitis B is prevalent and then getting vaccinated there.

Yes, it’s been so long since humans developed the hepatitis B vaccine—and so many people have been vaccinated—that the World Health Organization (WHO) has already designated universal hepatitis B vaccination for newborns as a global public health policy. Yet, regions where the hepatitis B virus remains prevalent and continues to spread still exist!

Since the hepatitis B virus has not completely disappeared, Why aren’t we as anxious about this as we were about the coronavirus?

The reason is that infection with the hepatitis B virus doesn't immediately lead to severe illness, nor does it immediately cause loss of appetite, inability to drink, or difficulty breathing. By the time symptoms—such as hepatitis, cirrhosis, or liver cancer—appear, it could be years or even decades later. In contrast, the novel coronavirus can trigger acute pneumonia and respiratory distress, requiring emergency hospitalization, isolation, and the use of ventilators, thereby consuming a significant amount of medical resources.

So, the development of a COVID-19 vaccine can be described as a piece of driftwood floating in a vast ocean—giving people something to hold onto. We should be deeply grateful for this.

However, drawing on more than three decades of experience with the battle between the hepatitis B vaccine and the hepatitis B virus, we know that once COVID-19 vaccines are widely administered, the coronavirus will not simply disappear. Instead, it will gradually become more like hepatitis B or influenza—persisting alongside humanity in a long-term, coexisting relationship.

In other words, as the pandemic progresses, what people can ultimately expect is that the novel coronavirus will no longer suddenly cause a large number of patients to develop severe illness requiring hospitalization—and the symptoms it causes will become increasingly mild. This is because the virus strains that lead to severe illness have already been eliminated with the deaths of those severely ill patients. In the end, the viruses circulating among the population will be those carried by individuals with mild infections or asymptomatic carriers.

Don’t forget that asymptomatic carriers can also transmit the virus. They remain asymptomatic because their immune systems are keeping the virus in check, but the virus is still replicating inside their bodies and may even mutate during the replication process. However, even if mutations do occur, the virus generally won’t become much more virulent—after all, for the virus to continue surviving in humans, it typically won’t become overly aggressive.

As the number of asymptomatic carriers increases, it becomes increasingly difficult to know whether the people you come into contact with are also carriers. Once you’re accidentally infected, the virus will linger in your body—just like the flu or hepatitis B virus—waiting for the right moment to strike.

Although the virus at that time will be much milder than it is now, that doesn't mean it definitely won't cause severe illness.

The premise for it not leading to severe illness is that, most of the time, your immune system must be functioning properly and above average. As soon as your immunity becomes dysregulated one day, it will start causing trouble—and when it does, the most severe outcome can be pneumonia requiring a ventilator.

So, yet another virus has been added to the list of those that humans are striving to coexist with peacefully.

Only by strengthening one’s own immune function and keeping the immune system at a high, healthy standard “at all times and in all places” can we ensure that, even if unfortunately infected, severe cases will become mild, and mild cases will become asymptomatic.

But how can we boost our immune function? By going to bed early and rising early, eating a balanced diet, getting moderate exercise, and maintaining a positive mood? Can you really do all these things? Even if you can, will your immune system definitely improve? Not necessarily. It’s probably safer and more convenient to just take lingzhi mushrooms every day.

The virus won't disappear; rather, antibodies might.

Whether or not you’ve been vaccinated, please keep taking Lingzhi. After all, only by maintaining a strong immune system can you enjoy protection at all times.

[Introduction to Professor Hsu Rui-xiang of National Taiwan University]

● In 1990, he obtained a doctoral degree from the Institute of Agricultural Chemistry at National Taiwan University with his dissertation titled “A Study on the Identification System for Ganoderma Species Strains,” becoming the first Chinese-speaking scholar to earn a PhD in Ganoderma.

● In 1996, a “Genetic Database for Strain Identification of Ganoderma Species” was established, providing the academic and industrial communities with a reliable basis for identifying Ganoderma strains.

● Since 2000, we have been dedicated to the independent development and application of functional proteins found in Ganoderma lucidum, achieving the goal of integrating medicine and food.

● Currently a part-time professor in the Department of Biochemical Technology at National Taiwan University, founder of Lingzhi Xinwang, and editor-in-chief of “Healthy Lingzhi” magazine.