President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday promoted the efficacy of flu shots against a seasonal flu outbreak and instructed the Cabinet to step up its efforts to encourage the public to get vaccinated against influenza because the outbreak of seasonal flu and A(H1N1) remained strong.
In a video clip posted on his Facebook page, Ma called on the public to cooperate with the Department of Health’s (DOH) instructions and get vaccinated to prevent further outbreaks of seasonal flu.
“It is especially important for children under six years old to get vaccinated. Every life is valuable, and a flu shot remains the most effective way to prevent seasonal flu,” he said.
Ma said during an outbreak of A(H1N1) two years ago, about 25 percent of the nation’s population got flu shots, which has effectively kept the situation under control. The public should be vaccinated this year as well, the president said.
According to Presidential Office spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), Ma instructed Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) to strengthen measures to promote the effect of the flu shots and prevent another outbreak.
Ma’s comments came after former DOH minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) on Tuesday — his last day in office — filed a lawsuit against seven political commentators saying they stigmatized locally produced vaccines and created a public panic.
In an interview with Era TV on Thursday, Yaung, who stepped down as minister on Wednesday, accused talk show host Cheng Hung-yi (鄭弘儀) and six guests on his Talking Show of exaggerating the negative impact of flu vaccines and urging people not to get flu shots. He said he had filed a lawsuit against them.
Cheng refuted Yaung’s accusation and said yesterday Yaung had refused an invitation from the show to discuss the vaccine issue.
Cheng said the show discussed the related risks of flu vaccine--related complications and compared the situation in Taiwan with that in other countries.
He insisted the show was only providing information about both the positive and negative impact of flu vaccines to the public. Cheng said he would consider filing a defamation lawsuit against Yaung.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
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