SOCIETY
Family given compensation
The family of a man who died from an adverse reaction to a tetanus vaccine has received NT$2.5 million (US$78,306) in compensation, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said. The man, 50, was given a tetanus shot after being bitten by a dog, but eventually died from heart and lung failure due to an allergic reaction to tetanus antibodies, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) deputy director-general Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said. An autopsy showed that emphysema, pulmonary hypertension and coronary artery disease contributed to his death, the CDC said. The compensation amount was decided based on medical records, clinical responses and related tests by the ministry’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). The man’s family would also get an additional NT$300,000 for funeral expenses, the CDC said. The tetanus vaccine might cause shock due to an allergic reaction in approximately one to three out of 100,000 cases, it added. This is the first time the family of a deceased tetanus vaccine recipient has received compensation under the VICP, Lo said.
EVENTS
Jay Chou to sing in Dome
Pop star Jay Chou (周杰倫) is set to become the first singer to hold a solo concert at the Taipei Dome, when he brings his “Carnival” tour to the baseball stadium in December, his record company JVR Music said on Friday. “It would be Jay Chou’s first solo concert in Taipei in seven years, and the first such concert at the Taipei Dome,” it said. JVR Music quoted Chou as saying that he hopes to offer fans new experiences. Chou began the tour in Shanghai on October 2019 to mark 20 years of being in the music business, but it was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tour resumed in December 2022 and Chou performed two concerts this year, one in the O2 Arena in London and another in Paris. No concert dates or other details were given in the statement. Before Chou’s “Carnival” tour, the Taipei Dome is to host the very first non-sports event since it opened in October last year — the National Day Gala on Oct. 5 — during which singer Jody Chiang (江蕙) is to give her first public performance since she retired nine years ago.
DIPLOMACY
Taiwan to cohost WTO talk
Taiwan is to cohost a discussion session at the WTO’s Public Forum, which is to be held from Sept. 10 to 13 in Geneva, Switzerland, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The seminar, titled “Greener and Inclusive Economies in the Name of Re-globalization: Mutual Supportiveness of Government and Private Approaches,” would be organized by Taiwan’s WTO mission and the Bern-based World Trade Institute (WTI). Taiwan has been a WTO member under the name The Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu since January 2002. The seminar would be live streamed on Sept. 11 at 7:30pm and would feature Acer Inc corporate sustainability officer Grace Liu (劉靜靜) and Cindy Lin (林茂生), executive vice president of Fubon Financial Holdings and head of the enterprise’s sustainability and corporate communications division. The two speakers would share their experiences in working in Taiwan’s high-tech manufacturing and financial services industries, and in promoting sustainable development in these sectors, the ministry said. Scholars from the WTI would also share their views on how to build a green and inclusive economy, it added.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its