Former VP urges Taiwan to acquire massive amounts of vaccines ASAP

前副總統敦促台灣盡快獲得大量疫苗

Former Taiwan Vice President Chen Chien-jen expresses concern about COVID variants


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Former Taiwan Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) on Tuesday (June 29) suggested that Taiwan acquire massive amounts of vaccines as soon as possible and use them.

As Taiwan saw its first outbreaks of the COVID-19 Delta variant, Chen took to Facebook to describe the relationship between vaccination and virus mutation.

The former VP said that the World Health Organization (WHO) has made a list of SARS-CoV-2 variants that it considers “variants of concern” (VOC).

A VOC is "a variant for which there is evidence of increased transmissibility, more severe disease, significant reduction in neutralization by antibodies generated during previous infection or vaccination, reduced effectiveness of treatments or vaccines, or diagnostic detection failures," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The COVID-19 VOC group includes the Alpha variants first found in the U.K., the Gamma variant originated in Brazil, and the Delta variant from India.

The VOC have been wreaking havoc around the world with their high transmissibility, according to Chen. Taiwan’s COVID-19 spike in the second half of April was caused by the Alpha variant, he said, adding that the new wave of infections resulted in more than 13,000 confirmed cases and more than 500 deaths in the country. He mentioned that the Delta variant is now the underlying reason for a cluster infection in Taiwan’s Pingtung County.

As Taiwan got its hands on COVID-19 vaccines late, the country’s current vaccination rate is only 7.7 percent, which is low compared to 65 percent in the U.K. and 64.4 percent in Israel, two countries that are among the most vaccinated.

However, he said that the Delta variant has been blamed for another wave of infections in the two nations. As of mid-June, 99 percent of confirmed cases in the U.K. were infected with the variant.

The former VP pointed out that vaccination will give 90 percent protection against severe illness caused by the Delta variant.

Chen went on to say that “God helps those who help themselves” and championed developing domestic vaccines as many other countries have been doing. He said if domestic vaccines are confirmed to be effective and safe after phase II clinical trials, emergency use authorization (EUA) should be considered in order to win the race against the virus.

The sooner and more thorough the vaccination, the more effective it becomes in preventing the spread of the virus and reducing the possibility of virus mutation, Chen said. He added that acquiring the maximum number of COVID-19 vaccines and getting most people vaccinated should be the priority.