The past 18 months have been surreal for epidemiologists. For the first time, specialist language that used to be locked in scientific literature — such as social distancing, R numbers and community transmission — has spilled into the common lexicon.
The public’s familiarity with this language has helped scientists convey information, but it also breeds a false sense of certainty. While experts debate growing piles of research, armchair epidemiologists eagerly draw their own conclusions from piecemeal data, convinced of their veracity because of their air of scientific authority.
Political opportunists have been eager to wield this veneer of authority, cherry-picking data and exacerbating scientific disagreements to support an agenda, especially around COVID-19 vaccines.
Primed by decontextualized reports of blood clotting associated with the AstraZeneca shot, reports of deaths after immunization sound alarming. Sensing an opportunity, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Wednesday last week blasted these 240 or so deaths among 1.8 million Taiwanese who have received the vaccine as “horrifyingly high.” Of course, this ratio of 0.000133 to one does not sound particularly scary, so the KMT compared the figure with the UK’s 0.000024 and Norway’s 0.000044. If still not convinced, pointing out that the rate is 10 times that in Germany, Italy and Austria certainly sounds bad.
These numbers conveniently obscure a litany of other variables that explain the discrepancy. For one thing, the deaths were not necessarily caused by the vaccine. As the Central Epidemic Command Center explained the day before, only two of the 44 deaths from that day were unexplained; the remaining 42 were due to other causes, including choking on food and urinary tract infections, which are not vaccine side effects. Additionally, since the majority of people being vaccinated at the moment are elderly, it also makes sense that there would be more deaths compared with countries that have broader immunizations.
However, nothing has proven sweeter fodder than emergency use authorization (EUA) guidelines. Wielding scientific debate as proof of its danger, opposition politicians are decrying the use of immunobridging as a method of inferring vaccine efficacy prior to the completion of phase 3 clinical trials. Since no other country has granted an EUA using this approach, debate is warranted, but it should be left to those qualified to speak on the matter.
In what she surely thought was a smoking gun, Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Ann Kao (高虹安) on June 23 cited poor phase 3 efficacy results for Germany’s CureVac vaccine as proof of the unreliability of immunobridging, since phase 1 trial results showed high antibody titers — the mark of high efficacy in immunobridging.
However, experts quoted in Nature and other media said that early testing showed neutralizing antibody titers that lagged far behind its competitors and only just on par with natural levels in recovered patients. Without offering context, Kao’s claim of “high” antibody levels has little meaning, but has a veneer of scientific authority.
All the armchair epidemiologists out there looking to form an opinion on immunobridging will look to claims such as Kao’s for evidence, only further distorting the real scientific debate and hindering actions that could help address the real threat: the COVID-19 pandemic.
As frustrating as it is, politicians tend to misrepresent data. The tools are just too convenient and powerful, and the issues too complex. Responsibility then falls to the media to check their claims, instead of reporting them at face value.
When US budget carrier Southwest Airlines last week announced a new partnership with China Airlines, Southwest’s social media were filled with comments from travelers excited by the new opportunity to visit China. Of course, China Airlines is not based in China, but in Taiwan, and the new partnership connects Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport with 30 cities across the US. At a time when China is increasing efforts on all fronts to falsely label Taiwan as “China” in all arenas, Taiwan does itself no favors by having its flagship carrier named China Airlines. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is eager to jump at
The muting of the line “I’m from Taiwan” (我台灣來欸), sung in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), during a performance at the closing ceremony of the World Masters Games in New Taipei City on May 31 has sparked a public outcry. The lyric from the well-known song All Eyes on Me (世界都看見) — originally written and performed by Taiwanese hip-hop group Nine One One (玖壹壹) — was muted twice, while the subtitles on the screen showed an alternate line, “we come here together” (阮作伙來欸), which was not sung. The song, performed at the ceremony by a cheerleading group, was the theme
Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised eyebrows recently when he declared the era of American unipolarity over. He described America’s unrivaled dominance of the international system as an anomaly that was created by the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War. Now, he observed, the United States was returning to a more multipolar world where there are great powers in different parts of the planet. He pointed to China and Russia, as well as “rogue states like Iran and North Korea” as examples of countries the United States must contend with. This all begs the question:
Liberals have wasted no time in pointing to Karol Nawrocki’s lack of qualifications for his new job as president of Poland. He has never previously held political office. He won by the narrowest of margins, with 50.9 percent of the vote. However, Nawrocki possesses the one qualification that many national populists value above all other: a taste for physical strength laced with violence. Nawrocki is a former boxer who still likes to go a few rounds. He is also such an enthusiastic soccer supporter that he reportedly got the logos of his two favorite teams — Chelsea and Lechia Gdansk —
RSS