There must be caution in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines developed by Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp and United Biomedical Inc before their phase 3 trials are conducted, former Centers for Disease Control director Su Ih-jen (蘇益仁) said on Monday.
Su’s comment came a day after Chinese-language media reported that Academia Sinica research fellow Chen Pei-jer (陳培哲) quit a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee to protest the government’s vaccine authorization plans.
Chen said he resigned late last month because he felt that the committee would have trouble remaining neutral when reviewing domestic vaccine candidates, with the major challenge to neutrality posed by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) herself after expressed hope that a locally developed COVID-19 vaccine would be available late next month.
Su, a former convener of the Cabinet’s vaccine technology development committee, said that “products that are not certain to be authorized for use or still far from it should certainly not be used in mass inoculation programs.”
Medigen and United Biomedical vaccines, of which the government has ordered 5 million doses each, are not expected to be subjected to phase 3 trials before obtaining emergency authorization, he said.
The Taiwanese firms are using additional test subjects and antibody counts in phase 2 trials in place of efficacy studies that typically are part of phase 3 trials, he said.
The measures are not enough to guarantee that the domestic vaccines will be fully effective, so they should not comprise the main part of Taiwan’s inoculation program, he said.
Although Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines were granted emergency use authorizations, the manufacturers had carried out phase 3 trials, demonstrating their readiness for use, he said.
No more than 1 million people should receive domestic vaccines and only as a supplement to the more proven vaccines that the government must obtain from foreign sources, he said.
Should phase 2 trials produce promising results for the Taiwan-made vaccines, they could be deployed as a strategic reserve to plug supply gaps or to counter infection surges, he said.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS