A survey that checks for COVID-19 antibodies using samples from donated blood is legal, and the randomly selected donors are informed and can opt out, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
Some blood donors had questioned whether the survey breaches privacy and should require institutional review board approval, Chinese-language media reported yesterday.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), who is also the CECC spokesman, said the center on Feb. 20 announced that it has entrusted the Taiwan Blood Services Foundation to work with the CDC to conduct a COVID-19 serology antibody survey.
Photo courtesy of the Central Epidemic Command Center
The survey is conducted based on the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法) and the Regulations Governing the Implementation of the Epidemiological Surveillance and Advance-Alert System for Communicable Diseases (傳染病流行疫情監視及預警系統實施辦法), he said.
The foundation would randomly select 7,000 samples from blood donated from January to June this year, and test for antibodies for the nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV-2, which could indicate prior infection, Lo said.
The survey is a legitimate part of routine disease monitoring, not a research project, so it does not need approval by an institutional review board, he said.
The survey has an “opt out” mechanism, he said, adding that donors whose blood had been randomly selected would be informed and have the option to opt out of the testing.
Among the 2,400 blood bags donated in January and February that were selected for the survey, 24 donors chose to opt out, Lo said.
The randomly selected blood samples are anonymized and given pseudonyms before they are tested for antibodies, so the results cannot be linked back to individual donors, who also cannot be informed of the result, he said.
As some people questioned why the center did not inform them beforehand, Lo said the donors are informed before their blood is used for the test.
Not all donors of the more than 1 million blood bags expected to be donated in the six months would be informed, he said, adding that the foundation feared that it might slow down the donation process.
The center is grateful to most of the 2,400 blood donors who were informed about the test and agreed to their blood sample being used, he said, adding that the donations make it possible to monitor the infection situation in local communities as it changes.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS