Taiwan‘s Central Epidemic Command Center Commander Chen Shih-chung revealed for the first Time in a radio interview today (17) that Taiwan was scheduled to purchase 5 million doses of vaccines from Germany‘s BNT late last year, but on the eve of signing the contract, there was a change due to the intervention of Chinese Communist political forces. He has been criticized by the outside world for the lack of transparency in the purchase of vaccine information, Chen said, “I have a hard time to say.
As the global epidemic continues to grow, the acquisition and vaccination of vaccines is a top priority for almost every country in the world. Although Taiwan has been able to combat the epidemic for a year, it experienced an “in-hospital infection at Taoyuan Hospital” before the Yellow New Year, but fortunately it has been completely controlled and there is no sign of spreading to the community, but it has also prompted the government of the Republic of China to speed up the implementation of vaccination, hoping to provide the public with an additional layer of security against epidemics.
However, the process of acquiring the vaccine in Taiwan was difficult. Taiwan’s Minister of health and Welfare, who is also the commander of the epidemic command center, Chen Shih-chung, disclosed for the first time in a radio interview today the arduous process of purchasing the vaccine in Taiwan.
Chen said that as early as last year, Taiwan had directly negotiated with BioNTech of Germany to purchase 5 million doses of vaccine. However, the German company BioNTech authorized the agency for the Greater China region, including Taiwan, to the Chinese company Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceuticals. Due to the concern of external intervention during the negotiation process, the vaccine label has not been announced to the public, which has led to frequent criticism from the outside world for the “black box operation” of the vaccine purchase and lack of transparency.
Chen Shih-chung, the commander of Taiwan’s epidemic command center, disclosed for the first time in a radio interview on the morning of the 17th that Taiwan had ordered 5 million doses of Wuhan pneumonia vaccine from Germany’s BNT, but the contract could not be signed due to the intervention of the Chinese Communist Party‘s political forces, and was criticized by the outside world for not being transparent at the time. (Photo source: Central News Agency)
Chen Shizhong said he was asked several times about the progress of the vaccine purchase during a regular press conference on the epidemic, and he was about to tell the people of China about the news several times, but in the end he refrained from saying anything. Unexpectedly, Germany changed on the eve of the contract, because “some people don’t want Taiwan to be too happy” and the contract to buy the vaccine was thus intercepted and cancelled.
Chen Shizhong said with a bitter smile, “I have a hard time to say. Since the contract between the two sides was not completed, there was no question of the German side breaking the contract, but he confessed that it did disrupt Taiwan’s overall layout on vaccines.
In addition, on the question of whether Taiwan uses mainland vaccines, Chen said that mainland vaccines are not on COVAX’s option list, nor on Taiwan’s procurement list. Chen pointed out that a lot of information about the phase III trials of the mainland vaccine was released in the form of press releases, so Taiwan has no way to understand the technical information level, and so far the Chinese Communist Party has not actually indicated that it will provide the vaccine to Taiwan.
Chen Shizhong concluded that, taking an overview of 2021, vaccines and antiviral drugs are quite important topics this year, Taiwan was ahead of schedule as early as March last year, setting up a vaccine group in the R & D team, and contacting original manufacturers in June, hoping to provide further information for the procurement of vaccines, when many vaccines were still only animal testing, phase I clinical trial information, the command center on the one hand to understand the experts for the four types of At that time, many vaccines were only available in animal testing and Phase I clinical trials.
As for the Chinese Communist Party’s political involvement and suppression of Taiwan in the international community, Chen said with emotion that every time he went to Geneva to participate in international organizations such as the WHA (World Health Assembly), he would often be “messed around with”, so he learned the lesson that he had to wait until he was completely sure before making an announcement.
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