The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that its plans to donate doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp to the nation’s diplomatic allies are in response to their needs, after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) called for an explanation.
KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) at a news conference in Taipei yesterday showed reporters an image of a document that he said the ministry had sent to nine of the nation’s embassies on Tuesday last week.
The document says that the government is considering donating doses of the Medigen vaccine to the nation’s diplomatic allies and asked the embassies to inquire whether their host nations would be interested in receiving them.
Photo: CNA
“On the one hand, we rely on other nations to donate to us internationally certified vaccines, then on the other hand our government wants to use public funds to purchase domestic vaccines without international certification to give to our diplomatic allies,” Chiang said.
He questioned the “logic” behind the plan, as well as where the funding would come from.
Chiang also asked why the government was “in a hurry” to donate the vaccine, as it only received an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration on Monday last week.
The Medigen vaccine is “controversial,” Chiang said, questioning whether the donation proposal was the ministry’s idea or whether it had been requested by senior government officials.
“Taiwan’s public health standards are very high,” Chiang said, adding that the government should not sacrifice the nation’s credibility.
“The government and Ministry of Foreign Affairs must come out and explain” the plan, he said.
In a statement yesterday afternoon, the ministry said that some diplomatic allies have struggled to acquire COVID-19 vaccines and have followed the progress of Taiwan’s domestic vaccines, expressing their high expectations for them.
Beijing has continued to use vaccines in an attempt to damage relations between Taiwan and its diplomatic allies, and to protect its allies from Beijing’s “diplomatic extortion,” the government had said that it would be willing to consider the feasibility of donating domestic vaccines once they are in mass production and on the precondition that domestic demand would be met, the ministry said.
To respond to the urgent needs of the nation’s allies, the ministry asked the embassies to look into the procedures for their host governments to import foreign vaccines as part of a preliminary assessment, it said.
Any donations of COVID-19 vaccines would be funded by the ministry’s foreign aid budget, it added.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
Taiwan has recorded its first fatal case of Coxsackie B5 enterovirus in 10 years after a one-year-old boy from southern Taiwan died from complications early last month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. CDC spokesman Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) told a news conference that the child initially developed a fever and respiratory symptoms before experiencing seizures and loss of consciousness. The boy was diagnosed with acute encephalitis and admitted to intensive care, but his condition deteriorated rapidly, and he passed away on the sixth day of illness, Lo said. This also marks Taiwan’s third enterovirus-related death this year and the first severe
RSS