According to Taiwan's United Daily News on the 27th, Chen Shizhong announced that Taiwan has signed a contract with COVAX on the 18th of this month and is confident of obtaining a vaccine. In the future, priority vaccines will be given to the publicly paid influenza, which will c

Source: Global Times

Chen Shizhong (Data photo source: Taiwan's United Daily News)

[Global Times reporter Zhang Tianxing] The new crown pneumonia epidemic spreads around the world, and the people on the island are eagerly looking forward to when there will be a vaccine. But Chen Shizhong, commander of Taiwan's "Central Epidemic Command Center", expressed his determination not to use mainland vaccines. Although some radicals on the island say he has backbone, most people are dissatisfied with ideology once again overtaking medicine. Many people directly retorted, fearing that the mainland would be willing to sell vaccines if they bowed down and begged the mainland to sell vaccines.

According to Taiwan's United Daily News on the 27th, Chen Shizhong announced that Taiwan has signed a contract with COVAX (Global Acquisition Mechanism for the New Coronavirus Vaccine) on the 18th of this month and is confident of obtaining a vaccine. In the future, priority vaccines will be given to the publicly paid influenza, which will cover 60% of Taiwan's population, about 13.58 million. Chen Shizhong also declared that he "is certain that he will not choose mainland vaccines"; as for Taiwan's own vaccines, clinical trials of Guoguang, Lianya and high-end companies have been approved recently, and if they are successful, they will be produced in the second quarter of next year. On the 27th, he once again stated that in the future, Taiwan will not purchase mainland goods in accordance with current regulations.

United News Network said on the 27th that there are currently 9 new crown vaccines in the international world entering the third phase of clinical trials, 4 of which come from the mainland, one from Russia, and the other 4 are European and American systems. However, three of the European and American systems are ultra-high-tech vaccines and need to be transported at ultra-low temperatures under minus 80 degrees Celsius. Taiwan does not have the ability to transport at this stage. "In other words, Taiwan can only lock in one vaccine, which is quite difficult." For this reason, former "Director of Health" Yang Zhiliang said pessimistically, "In the end, there may be no vaccine at all." He said that mainland vaccines are one of the few available vaccines currently recognized by the World Health Organization that are developing rapidly and are worth looking forward to. Both European and American vaccine research and development have encountered bottlenecks. Chen Shizhong should not take the initiative to shout not to buy mainland vaccines and say that he is dead. "The situation across the Taiwan Strait is tense. In the future, even if Taiwan bows down and asks the mainland to sell vaccines, the other party may not necessarily sell them." Some industry insiders revealed on the Internet that they were recently called to a meeting by the Food and Drug Administration because the vaccines require extremely low temperature storage, and Taiwan currently does not have the professional ability to build a medical frozen warehouse of minus 60 to 80 degrees Celsius. For this reason, it is urgently inquired whether the frozen warehouses for deep-sea fish storage in the south can be requisitioned as a place for vaccine storage. The operator said that even if the vaccine storage problem is initially solved, transportation is another major problem, because there is no cold chain logistics vehicle in Taiwan that can provide such ultra-low temperature transportation services.

Senior media person Huang Zhixian criticized Chen Shizhong, "How anti-humanity is it? How deep is the hatred of the two words "China"?" She emphasized that Taiwan does not buy mainland vaccines, but all over the world are rushing to buy them. "Does the mainland want you to buy? ... For Taiwan independence, the epidemic from beginning to end has only one function, which is to use Taiwan independence to fight against China, and we must use the epidemic to blacken the mainland." Lin Weizhou, convener of the Kuomintang caucus, questioned that Taiwan signed a contract with COVAX and the other party purchased vaccines from qualified manufacturers around the world. It is uncertain how much it can be bought now. Can Taiwan choose? He said that with the current atmosphere, even if Taiwan buys vaccines from the mainland alone, the mainland may not be able to sell them. "Don't be too politicized, I'm too over-talking." Zheng Liwen, deputy secretary-general of the Kuomintang, said that due to the few confirmed cases in Taiwan, there are not many new coronavirus strains that can be isolated from patient examinations, and the progress of self-produced vaccine research and development cannot keep up with the international speed. She asked Chen Shizhong what data or professional judgment was based on how to choose a vaccine? Will giving up the four mainland vaccines due to political factors increase the risk of being unable to buy them?

The United Daily News published an editorial on the 27th saying that when U.S. Secretary of Health Azar visited Taiwan in August, Taiwan hoped that he could help solve Taiwan's vaccine dilemma, but only received a perfunctory response from "take it back for research". Tsai Ing-wen's administration still needs to open up the clenbuterol fine pig thanks. Signing a contract with COVAX now is a relatively clear progress, but just as the government bought out of production of the new crown drug remdesivir in June in June, the production capacity of Taiwan was out of stock, the United States, Europe and other countries have already pre-ordered a large number of vaccines, which may cause monopoly, and other countries and regions cannot get it at all.What is even more ironic is that Taiwan was the first to accuse the WHO of helping the mainland to hide the epidemic, and in the end it still had to rely on COVAX's distribution mechanism to obtain vaccines. "Even if the mainland's new crown vaccine has a global leading position, Chen Shizhong, who has publicly despised the mainland many times, still ruled out mainland vaccines and paid a higher price to obtain the right to choose, but it is likely to delay the vaccine acquisition schedule and distribution quantity." The China Times said that the epidemic situation in Europe and the United States is still severe, while the mainland is slowing down. If both of them develop vaccines at the same time in the future, which one can provide COVAX with the international community earlier than their own use? It is obviously the mainland. "We spend a lot of money to buy it, probably to evaluate effective vaccines, but Chen Shizhong is politically responsible for excluding mainland vaccines. This is not a scientific attitude." The article criticized that from masks to vaccines, the DPP authorities do not consider quality, and directly "stigmatize" when they see it from the mainland. "This kind of thinking that when it is made from the mainland, the quality must be problematic and cannot be used" is to regard ideology as more important than the welfare of the people, which is particularly ironic to an authority that claims to "anti-China and protect Taiwan".

Original title: "Chen Shizhong threatened not to use mainland vaccines and was mocked. Public opinion on the island questioned: Do the mainland want you to buy it? 》