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.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
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