Vaccination strategies are highly scientific, with best practices for vaccine selection and vaccination procedures depending on a country’s particular situation.
However, politicians can always be relied on to politicize an issue. In this case, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and would-be president Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) are blatant examples. As well as singing the praises of Chinese vaccines, they have escalated the vaccination strategy issue into a Taiwan Strait issue.
Although some countries have chosen to use Chinese vaccines, they are not in the majority. Many of them are developing countries strapped for cash. Two countries that have chosen to use Chinese vaccines are Argentina and Peru, where scandals over privileged access to the vaccine have forced their health ministers to step down.
Most Taiwanese would probably not wish to be listed alongside them.
The foremost question for Taiwan to consider is not whether Chinese vaccines should be used, but what is the best way to combat the pandemic, based on the situation in Taiwan.
Having been so successful in preventing COVID-19, there is no need for Taiwan to wildly scramble for vaccines. As long as the nation’s disease prevention strategy is maintained, moving ahead without a vaccine for a few more months should not be a problem.
While keeping new COVID-19 cases at close to zero, Taiwan should monitor the countries scrambling for vaccines, note their experiences and be better informed when choosing the best vaccines for Taiwanese.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine — the only one so far with efficacy data from large-scale vaccination, thanks to the manufacturers’ close cooperation with Israel — has shown an efficacy of 95.8 percent.
All other vaccines need to be analyzed one by one after being used for large-scale vaccination. In a few months, the vaccines that are the most effective, with relatively mild side effects and stable quality, will be clear.
By that time, the first wave of countries rushing to administer vaccines will have vaccinated most of their populations. Meanwhile, vaccine makers will continue to expand capacity and well-developed logistics systems will fall into place, making vaccines more readily available and more favorably priced.
Taiwan will have the time to choose the safest and most effective vaccines, and obtain a steady supply of them at a reasonable price. Taiwan’s situation is unlike that of countries hit badly hit by the pandemic, which must accept the price named by vaccine makers, or which might spend a substantial amount of money, but still not obtain the vaccines they need.
The UK and Israel were forced to rush for vaccines because they failed to prevent a serious spread of COVID-19 within their borders. They see vaccines as a way to return to normal life, but Taiwanese are still living their normal lives every day.
Although Taiwan’s situation is different from that of the UK and Israel, those in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) seem eager to abandon the strategic advantage that the nation has won through the public’s diligent disease prevention efforts. They would prefer to scramble for vaccines with the countries whose efforts have failed — and prove their love for China by importing Chinese vaccines.
Ma, Jaw and other fans of Chinese vaccines should recognize that legislation adopted long ago, when the KMT was in power, prevents the government from purchasing Chinese vaccines.
If they think that Chinese vaccines are so great, the Formosa Republican Association, as a non-governmental organization, would be willing to negotiate and purchase some from China’s three main vaccine manufacturers — Sinovac, Sinopharm and CanSino.
The association would then invite Ma to be vaccinated first, followed by Jaw. KMT Central Committee member Sean Lien (連勝文) said that he wanted to be vaccinated first, but perhaps he could make do with third spot.
After being vaccinated, these three gentlemen could travel to an epidemic area to demonstrate how effective Chinese vaccines are. They had better not chicken out — or it would prove that Chinese vaccines are not as credible as they claim.
Tommy Lin is a physician and president of the Formosa Republican Association.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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