Taipei rat infestation continues to spread! WHO warns of hantavirus cases; if a black swan event occurs, it could impact the crypto market.

A rat infestation outbreak has erupted in Taipei City, and Mayor Chiang Wan-an has announced the establishment of a “pest detection team.” Internationally, as the Hantavirus outbreak continues to escalate, the WHO has issued warnings, and the crypto market is worried that a repeat of a black swan incident could occur.

Taipei plunges into a “rat infestation” crisis, and the pest detection team attempts to contain a million-level breeding surge

Recently, Taipei City has been hit by a severe rat infestation crisis. Residents in multiple administrative districts have frequently spotted rats running rampant, and online communities have dubbed this chaos the “rat infestation.”

According to data shared by writer Wang Hao and analyzed by netizens, rats have extremely strong reproductive capabilities. It takes about 5 to 6 weeks from birth to reaching reproductive maturity, and on average each litter can produce around 8 baby rats. If 200 male and female rats are used as a baseline, and effective remediation measures are lacking, their population could grow exponentially to 1.66 million within 12 months.

Image source: Yik Lim. Data shared by netizens. If 200 male and female rats are used as a baseline, their population could grow exponentially to 1.66 million within 12 months.

The data suggests Taipei City faces the risk that the number of rats will surpass the human population. Facing public pressure and concerns about environmental hygiene, on May 5, the Taipei City Government, led by Mayor Chiang Wan-an at the**“Rat Infestation Prevention Press Conference”****, announced the rollout of the “Rodent Detection Specialist” system, with plans to mobilize more than 100 personnel to carry out prevention and control work.**

The specialists’ professional mission is to help residents identify rats’ entry routes, food sources, and hidden piles of clutter—not to simply capture rats directly. Taipei City’s Environmental Protection Bureau hopes to use scientific methods to block rats’ survival space. At present, the city government has stepped up enforcement against violations such as feeding birds in parks, with fines of up to 6,000 yuan, in an effort to manage from the source and curb the expansion of the rat population.

Interpellations erupt in the legislature; debate over “southward rats, northward relocation” sparks a clash of scientific data

The rat infestation issue in Taipei City Council has escalated into an intense political contest. In a city government interpellation hearing at the Taipei City Council on the previous day (5/6), DPP councilor Jian Shupei pointed out that in the 11 days from late April 2026, Taipei City captured 944 rats—an average of 85 per day—showing that the rat problem is real and unrelated to political manipulation.

In response to doubts from outside, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an pushed back, saying that some of the “southward rats, northward relocation” remarks circulating online are part of cognitive warfare, and emphasized that the city government will do everything in its power to prevent and control the issue regardless of the number of rats.

Image source: TTV News. Faced with DPP councilor Jian Shupei’s accusations, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an countered that some of the “southward rats, northward relocation” remarks circulating online are part of cognitive warfare, and stressed that the city government will fully combat the issue.

However, Kuomintang? No—Social Democratic Party councilor Miao Boya criticized the city government for lacking scientific monitoring data. She disclosed that since Taipei stopped its investigation plan in 2015, the city has gone 12 years without conducting systematic surveys on rodent populations; as a result, current prevention and control work lacks data support.

Voices from the grassroots also expressed dissatisfaction with the policy. In a Facebook post, Wenshan District Huaxing Village administrator Chen Zhiying stated that Deputy Mayor Li Sichuan, in 2023, advocated adding more roadside trash bins, which led to overflowing garbage becoming a rat “luxury self-serve buffet,” serving as a breeding ground for the expansion of the current rat plague. Chen Zhiying said he had already removed some trash bins within the village last year to protest, and urged the city government to assess reducing the number of trash bins and strengthening outsourced cleaning and disinfection to avoid a “treat the headache by only addressing the head, treat the foot pain by only addressing the foot” governance approach.

WHO warns of Hantavirus’s global risk; deadly cruise cluster triggers heightened alert

In May, as Taiwan launches a battle against rats, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a global alert regarding the Hantavirus outbreak internationally.

Image source: WHO. The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a global alert regarding the Hantavirus outbreak internationally.

A cruise ship named Hondius reportedly experienced a clustered infection of Hantavirus. It has already caused 7 people to become ill, and unfortunately 3 of them have died. Hantavirus is a zoonotic infectious disease that is mainly transmitted through inhaling or contacting dust and objects contaminated by the excreta of infected rodents. The fatality rate in the Americas is as high as 50%, and there are currently no approved vaccines or specific treatments.

WHO also specifically noted that it has not ruled out the possibility of “human-to-human transmission” in this cruise case, and this uncertainty has intensified international panic. After disembarking, a 69-year-old Dutch woman died in Johannesburg, and relevant units then urgently traced her contacts, including more than 80 passengers who had been on the same flight. Taipei City had a fatal Hantavirus case in January 2026. Coupled with recent warnings from Hong Kong media advising travelers to Taiwan to be careful about Taipei’s rat problem, this biological threat has escalated from a local environmental issue to an international public-health defense level.

Hantavirus may become a black swan; crypto investors worry about a “Black Thursday” replay

The spread of Hantavirus internationally has struck a nerve among cryptocurrency investors, and the market has begun to draw parallels to the “Black Thursday” crash in March 2020. At that time, after WHO announced that COVID-19 had entered a pandemic, Bitcoin ($BTC) crashed by more than 50% within just 48 hours. The price once briefly hit a low of 3,883 USD, and market liquidity instantly dried up. Now, on social media platforms, there is a clear mood of anxiety, as investors fear that a deadly infectious disease could trigger another round of market collapse.

Image source: TradingView. When WHO announced that COVID-19 had entered a pandemic, Bitcoin ($BTC) crashed by more than 50% within just 48 hours.

That said, compared with 2020, today’s market environment is more mature. The approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs, the continued holdings by institutional-grade entities, and the strategic reserve plan supported by the White House all provide some support for prices.

Nevertheless, Hantavirus’s extremely high fatality rate remains a potential threat. If sustained human-to-human transmission occurs, the global economy will face new uncertainties. Market observers note that once the outbreak gets out of control, investors may prioritize selling digital assets to reduce risk, and less liquid altcoins will likely be hit first.

Against the backdrop of the intertwining of Taipei’s “rat infestation” and international epidemic-prevention warnings, investors should closely monitor how quickly public health responses are carried out. If the outbreak remains confined to specific environments, its impact on financial markets will be very limited; if it evolves into a global crisis, the crypto market may again face liquidity pressure driven by risk-off sentiment.