The commander of the Central Epidemic Command Center, Chen Shizhong, said today that timely access to vaccines is indeed the goal of efforts, and relying on self-sufficiency of domestic vaccines is also the direction of efforts.
After Taiwan was included in the first wave of COVAX distribution list, everyone is concerned about whether the vaccine is obtained smoothly. The commander of the Central Epidemic Command Center, Chen Shizhong, said today that timely access to the vaccine is indeed the goal of efforts, and relying on domestic vaccine self-sufficiency is also the direction of efforts. In addition, Chen also announced for the first Time the negotiation process with Wuhan pneumonia Vaccine Global Acquisition Mechanism (COVAX) platform, which includes 4 major keys.
The Central Epidemic Command Center confirmed on the 4th that Taiwan was included in the first batch of vaccine distribution list of the COVAX platform, which is expected to distribute 1.3 million doses of Astroglide (AZ) vaccine with 5 to 8 non-UN members, and is expected to arrive from February to June, and will be ready for administration a week after arrival.
The media asked whether Taiwan’s certainty of obtaining the vaccine was like an injection of a strong heartbeat.
Chen Shizhong said at a press conference on the afternoon of the 5th, the command center has been working hard since 2020, hoping to obtain safe and effective vaccines in time, but the mass production of domestic vaccines is also a very important thing, how to work with domestic vaccine companies in the future, their own self-sufficiency, is one of the directions of effort, hoping to carry the responsibility of epidemic prevention for society.
Even if the vaccine is obtained, people’s willingness to be vaccinated will be the next test.
Chen Shizhong also announced for the first time the negotiation process with COVAX and responded to the 4 questions raised by COVAX, so that Taiwan successfully squeezed into the first wave of the distribution list.
Chen explained that COVAX first asked which countries and regions wanted to participate, and Taiwan expressed its willingness to participate, as Taiwan is a richer country, so it would not be included in the list of countries receiving the vaccine for free. The next step was to choose whether to let COVAX randomly assign the vaccine, which was more expensive because Taiwan decided to choose its own vaccine.
After COVAX’s efforts to get the vaccine, it has recently asked all participating countries if they want the RNA vaccine, so there are problems with delivery and preservation of such vaccines, said Chen Shizhong, “Because we have the ability to deliver the RNA vaccine, we want it”. When COVAX recently announced the first batch of AZ vaccine to be released and asked for everyone’s willingness, “we said yes”.
On how to compete with other 5 to 8 countries for vaccine doses, Chen replied that there is no such thing as competition, it is a matter of distribution, as COVAX will distribute the vaccine according to the proportion of the amount purchased by everyone, it is not clear how much other countries will buy, depending on how COVAX will distribute it. Therefore, once the number of allocation is determined, the command center will prepare the list of the order of administration as soon as possible, and the CDC will also submit an application for emergency import, and after the vaccine arrives in Taiwan, the Food and Drug Administration will also need to conduct relevant tests, and is now in the midst of intensive preparations.
Chen said that when the survey was conducted in October last year, the public did not know whether the vaccine was effective or not, and there were not so many reports at that time, so many people thought that they should wait until the scientific confirmation was effective before they were willing to administer it.
Chen Shizhong said that the command center conducted a telephone survey from January to February 2 this year on a sample of people aged 18 or older in 22 counties and cities across the country, and from the sample size of 1,522, it was found that people’s willingness to administer the vaccine became higher, probably due to the influence of the epidemic in Taoyuan Hospital and the gradual release of effective reports from various countries. The willingness to vaccinate.
Chen Shizhong said in an interview with Apple Daily that the command center had conducted a survey on the willingness to vaccinate against Wuhan pneumonia in October 2020 and found that compared to European and American countries, the proportion of Taiwan’s resistance to vaccination was not high, with about 65% willing to play, 8% unwilling and 10% without opinion, as for the willingness to vaccinate, 80% did not want priority vaccination because they wanted to see the vaccination situation abroad first.
The company’s main goal is to provide a comprehensive range of products and services to the public. In this regard, Chen Shizhong said, it seems that there is indeed this tendency, but through the vaccine to allow the global public to achieve mass immunity, should not be to 7 years so long.
Chen said, compared to the situation in October, when the results of the 2 and 3 stage experiments are not much, everyone is to maintain a wait-and-see attitude, after several months of observation of other countries to administer the vaccine, and there are no unexpected adverse events, so that everyone’s confidence in the vaccine slightly increased, coupled with the recent Taoyuan hospital cluster incident, so that everyone’s attitude is more inclined to administer the vaccine.
Chen also said that the people are very smart and will be more alert when the Wuhan pneumonia epidemic appears, but he also expects that after this wave of local epidemic subsides, people’s willingness to be vaccinated may decrease with it, which is a dynamic process.
Chen also stressed that vaccination will not be mandatory and there are no plans to make it mandatory. When the first batch of vaccine arrives in Taiwan, priority will be given to health care workers who are in direct contact with the confirmed patients, and then expanded to the epidemic transfer personnel and those who transport the isolated.
The convener of the Expert Advisory Group of the Epidemic Command Center, Zhang Shangchun, believes that as the virus continues to evolve, the outside world is more concerned about whether the protection of the existing vaccine will be affected, after all, a genetic variation may affect the effectiveness of the vaccine, as to how long the vaccine protection can be maintained, it is still to be confirmed by the data.
The media asked whether Chen Shizhong will take the lead in vaccination as Taiwan is about to receive the vaccine from COVAX. In response, Chen said that if the vaccine is not enough, priority will be given to high-risk health care workers, especially those in the front line of the strain hospitals to face patients.
Chen also said that if there are many vaccines, he is certainly willing to vaccinate first; if the vaccine is not enough, vaccination is not enthusiastic and will soon be put to expire, he is willing to vaccinate first.
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