A leading supporter of Taiwan in the US House of Representatives has proposed that a prominent Taiwanese-American scientist be selected to join the US delegation to a special technical briefing on SARS planned by the World Health Organization (WHO) next week.
Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, co-chairman of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus and Congress' leading promoter of Taiwan's role in the WHO, sent a letter Thursday to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, urging him to allow the scientist, Dr. Michael Lai (賴明詔), to attend the meeting.
Lai, a world-renowned biologist, is professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the University of South California. He is one of the pioneer scientists in the US in the field of coronaviruses, which researchers have determined are the cause of SARS.
Brown requested that Lai be included in the US delegation to the World Health Assembly so he can attend the briefing.
"Dr. Lai is familiar with Taiwan's SARS situation and has the ability to share detailed knowledge of the medical advances Taiwan has made so far," Brown said in the letter.
"Dr. Lai is a renowned authority and a pioneer in the study of coronavirus, which is associated with SARS.
"He has characterized steps to coronavirus replication during the past 25 years and discovered the phenomenon of RNA recombination, which is linked to coronavirus evolution," Brown said.
"He authored a chapter on the coronavirus in the Fields Virology textbook. His views on SARS have been widely quoted in numerous major publications and news media since the advent of the epidemic," he said.
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
City buses in Taipei and New Taipei City, as well as the Taipei MRT, would on Saturday begin accepting QR code payments from five electronic payment providers, the Taipei Department of Transportation said yesterday. The new option would allow passengers to use the “transportation QR code” feature from EasyWallet, iPass Money, iCash Pay, Jkopay or PXPay Plus. Passengers should open their preferred electronic payment app, select the “transportation code” — not the regular payment code — unlock it, and scan the code at ticket readers or gates, General Planning Division Director-General Liu Kuo-chu (劉國著) said. People should move through the
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