The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) should explain a dramatic increase in the number of people who are prioritized to receive COVID-19 vaccinations on grounds that they work as disease-prevention personnel in the central or local governments, the New Power Party (NPP) said yesterday.
The CECC should also explain how it plans to hold to account people who allegedly abused their privilege to get vaccinated ahead of others, the party said.
Some politicians, medical clinic personnel and prosecutors have allegedly used their status to get vaccinated, even though they were not in any of the CECC’s priority groups.
Photo: Ann Wang / Reuters
“Many of the incidents occurred either because the people involved thought they were in the CECC’s second category of those eligible to get vaccinated — which is for disease-prevention personnel in the central and local governments — or local health officials thought that they qualified,” NPP deputy caucus whip Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said.
These cases show that the criteria to be eligible for the second category are unclear, Chen said.
The NPP proposed a motion during the extraordinary legislative session last month asking the CECC to disclose the list of people who contravened the rules governing COVID-19 vaccinations, Chen said.
While the Ministry of Health and Welfare initially agreed to follow the motion, it reversed its position this month, saying that it has no way to verify the identities of people in the category, she said.
“If even the CECC has trouble verifying the identities of people who qualify for vaccination, how can we trust it to hold those who contravened the rules accountable?” Chen asked.
NPP Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) said that the number of people in the second category ballooned from about 90,000 in February to about 139,000 on Thursday last week.
The CECC has not explained the increase, except for a priority list update on June 9, when it added frontline police officers, Wang said.
“If the CECC fails to clearly explain the principles governing the list, they could be exploited by people seeking to cut in line for vaccines,” she said.
An Executive Yuan presentation on COVID-19 at a news conference following a Cabinet meeting last week was also filled with errors, Wang said.
The Executive Yuan said that 1.51 million people had been vaccinated nationwide, but the figure should have been 2.32 million, she said.
The Cabinet’s figure failed to take into account vaccinated people who are “non-medical personnel in medical institutions” or “family members of those in the first, second and third categories,” she said.
“We want to know how many of these individuals got vaccinated for being non-medical personnel at a hospital, such as former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), who serves on the board of Cheng Hsin General Hospital,” Wang said.
“We also want to know how many were family members of individuals in the second category, such as former Yunlin County commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味), the brother of Yunlin County Commissioner Chang Li-shan (張麗善),” she said, adding that the CECC should publish the results of its investigation.
NPP caucus whip Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said that the number of vaccinated people should be updated daily, so that he public can check whether the figures are consistent with the estimated number of people to be vaccinated, which would reduce anxiety.
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