The survivability of energy and the environment was the main subject of the Nineteenth Ho Hung Chiu Lecture delivered by Professor Way Kuo, President and University Distinguished Professor, at City University of Hong Kong. The event was held by the Hong Kong College of Radiologists with over 200 in attendance.

President Kuo is renowned for his work on designing the reliability of electronic systems and on nuclear energy and for his breakthroughs in nano-reliability research.

In his address on 12 November, he compared reliability to survivability. “Survivability simply says how long this patient will survive with treatment, but in terms of reliability, I work on the probability of failure-free operation of a system,” he said.

Through his research, President Kuo has found that the mortality rate of the COVID-19 virus had been very unstable in the first few months of the outbreak, i.e. from January to April 2020. After assessing the number of deaths and running related simulations, he predicted that the virus would reach a stable state and then a wear-out state.

 Then he compared the fatality rates for COVID-19, traffic accidents and air pollution, concluding that pollution was the most enduring cause of death.

“Air pollution kills 6.5 million people per year, according to United Nations data,” he pointed out.

In addition, President Kuo discussed One Health, i.e. the concept that human and animal health is bound to environmental health. Humans generate a lot of pollution and hurt the environment, and then the environment hurts animals and induces viruses (zoonotic diseases) that affect animals and human health. 

During his talk, President Kuo asked the audience to think about another hot issue: the low birth rate. He argued that if we encourage fertility as a way to address the aging problem, the problem will never be solved because when babies grow old, the aging problem will return. And more babies generate more pollutants too.

“People worry about consequences, but I think we should worry about the root cause of the problem,” he concluded.

The lecture took place after the joint ceremonies for the admission of new fellows to the Royal College of Radiologists and the Hong Kong College of Radiologists. In attendance were representatives from the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine and guests from the Royal College of Radiologists.

The Ho Hung Chiu Lecture commemorates the late Professor John Ho Hung-chiu, a leading figure in radiology in Hong Kong.