The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed a motion to hold a special session today to question Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) and the Cabinet about the government’s acquisition of the COVID-19 vaccine made by Taiwan-based Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗).
Opposition lawmakers have asked Chen to publicize the government’s purchase agreement with Medigen, while he and his colleagues are expected to face questions about whether the agreement was appropriate and in the public interest.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposed the motion on Wednesday last week, two days after Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, said in a debate that he agreed with the request to publicize the purchase agreement.
Photo: Tsai Szu-pei, Taipei Times
The Food and Drug Administration on July 19, 2021, granted the Medigen-developed vaccine emergency use authorization, a decision some considered controversial as the pharmaceutical company had not yet completed phase 3 clinical trials.
Instead, the results of the vaccine’s phase 2 trial were analyzed using immunobridging, which infers the vaccine’s overall level of protection based on immune responses in clinical trial participants.
KMT presidential candidate New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) yesterday said that Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) colluded with Lai’s campaign to cover up evidence related to controversies over the government’s acquisition of the vaccine.
“It has been 10 days since we had our televised debate, and there has been no response from Lai about this matter. Instead, we see the minister of health and welfare secretly attend a meeting at Lai’s campaign headquarters. Were they working on their testimony together or trying to destroy evidence?” Hou said in response to requests for comment about Chen’s scheduled briefing to the legislature.
“The DPP waited until now to deliberate this matter at the legislature. They should have disclosed details of the contract as quickly as possible, given that people have so many questions about the procurement process,” Hou said on the sidelines of a campaign event in Tainan.
Cabinet spokesman Lin Tze-luen (林子倫) defended the government’s purchase of the Medigen vaccine, saying that all COVID-19 vaccine procurements were carried out in accordance with regulations and common practices in the international community.
“Sixty-three cases have been filed in the past two years about alleged illegalities in the government’s acquisition of COVID-19 vaccines. Following investigations, prosecutors found no evidence to support any of these accusations and dismissed the cases,” Lin said.
“It is regrettable that members of opposition parties continue to ignore the truth and spread rumors about the procurement process,” he added.
Taiwan is not the only country that signed contracts with vaccine manufacturers containing confidentiality clauses, he said.
“The government, as one of the signing parties, needs to adhere to the terms of the contract. Given that opposition parties are continuing to use this to distort people’s understanding of the situation, we are communicating with vaccine manufacturers to disclose the contracts,” he said.
However, whether contracts could be disclosed publicly depends on the vaccine manufacturers, he said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS