Health authorities should show more sympathy to elderly people who are afraid of getting COVID-19 vaccines, instead of using general data to explain away post-vaccination deaths.
Local governments from Tuesday began allowing people older than 85 to receive vaccinations, while at least 28 deaths of people over 60 have been reported after they received AstraZeneca shots.
While the causal relationships between each death and vaccination are still being investigated, the government’s defensive responses seem to rub salt into the wounds of the grieving families, with its vaccination policy incurring more doubts.
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) has cited demographic data from last year — compiled before people were being vaccinated against COVID-19 — to show that more than 200 people aged 75 or older die each day in Taiwan. It also argued that the nation’s fatality rate of vaccine recipients in that age group is lower than in South Korea.
Of the reported deaths, 22 had chronic diseases, while postmortem examinations found two of the deaths resulted from arteriosclerosis and aortic dissection, the CECC said on Friday, adding that it would offer NT$300,000 to the legal heirs of people who died after being vaccinated if the heir allows an autopsy to be performed.
When it cannot explain the deaths, the government should do more than just use numbers to defend its vaccination policy. It must extend more help to bereaved people. Apart from financial aid, the families should expect medical authorities to provide some explanation for the deaths.
Local governments should also try to reduce the risk factors that could aggravate the health conditions of older vaccine recipients. For example, there have been reports that some octogenarians living near Tainan’s Nanhua Reservoir (南化水庫) spent nearly one hour taking a shuttle bus to a temple where vaccines were being administered. The city government could have arranged a location closer to their residences.
The Taipei City Government has also been accused of using poor route plans that kept many elderly people in wheelchairs lining up for vaccinations in scorching weather.
Such scenarios increase the health risks of elderly vaccine recipients, as well as the possibility of cluster infections, considering that they are often accompanied by caregivers who are not yet eligible for vaccinations.
It has been one month since the entire nation was put under a soft lockdown under a level 3 COVID-19 alert, while there is little hope that the alert might be downgraded after June 28, given that the nation has been recording more than 100 local cases each day this week.
As foreign vaccines are arriving and locally developed vaccines are expected to become available next month, many government agencies have begun considering the number of workers who will receive free vaccinations.
The National Communications Commission alone has submitted a list of 2,174 broadcast media journalists for the CECC’s review, and the science parks managed by the Ministry of Science and Technology are reportedly also making calculations.
As not every Taiwanese is currently eligible for a shot, the CECC should be prudent when renewing its vaccination priority list, while considering whether to allow elderly people or those with health problems to choose the vaccine brand they prefer.
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