The Food and Drug Administration on Sunday last week expanded emergency use authorization for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to children aged six to 11, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices followed with its recommendation on Wednesday.
The recommendation sparked wide discussion, as many parents are worried that the Moderna vaccine might not be safe or necessary for children. Research has shown that children rarely experience severe illness from COVID-19.
Committee convener Lee Ping-ing (李秉穎) said a week earlier that the COVID-19 fatality rate in US children is about one per 1 million, but the rate of serious adverse reactions post-vaccination is only about 0.1 per 1 million, and the fatality rate from anaphylaxis and myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination was nearly zero.
Although the risk of severe COVID-19 is very low in children, dozens could die if the local outbreak expands, Lee said on Wednesday, adding that parents should weigh the risk of rare adverse reactions and the risk of severe illness or death from infection.
Opposition parties’ inconsistent positions on the government’s disease prevention policies could add to parents’ anxieties. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) earlier this month questioned whether class suspensions could harm students’ right to education, but later condemned the easing of suspensions as not caring about the safety of unvaccinated students, and demanded that vaccinations for children be allowed.
After the committee’s recommendation, the KMT accused the government of treating children as “lab rats” for the Moderna vaccine, citing Japan, South Korea and the US as countries that have not approved the brand for children. It urged the government to instead authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged five to 11.
The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) had also urged the government to authorize the Moderna vaccine for children, but after the committee’s announcement, it echoed the KMT’s claim that the CECC was using children as “lab rats.” The party said the Moderna vaccine contains five times as much mRNA material as the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which worries parents about adverse reactions.
Some vaccine experts and physicians have addressed public concerns, explaining that the Moderna vaccine offers longer-lasting protection than Pfizer’s shot, but is more likely to cause mild adverse reactions. Others have said that vaccinating children against COVID-19 not only protects them from severe illness or death, but also helps protect vulnerable or elderly relatives.
A report published by the US CDC on Friday showed that among 397 children hospitalized with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 from Dec. 19 last year to Feb. 28, 87 percent were unvaccinated, 30 percent had no underlying medical condition, and 19 percent were admitted to an intensive care unit.
Many parents are naturally cautious when making decisions that could affect their children’s health, but the government could do more to inform and convince parents, allowing them to understand that the choice to vaccinate or not has risks either way, so they should carefully weigh this important health decision.
The government could also provide analysis based on scientific data, be honest and clear about the possible risks and correct any misinformation that circulates so that parents can make well-informed choices about vaccinating their children.
Weeks into the craze, nobody quite knows what to make of the OpenClaw mania sweeping China, marked by viral photos of retirees lining up for installation events and users gathering in red claw hats. The queues and cosplay inspired by the “raising a lobster” trend make for irresistible China clickbait. However, the West is fixating on the least important part of the story. As a consumer craze, OpenClaw — the AI agent designed to do tasks on a user’s behalf — would likely burn out. Without some developer background, it is too glitchy and technically awkward for true mainstream adoption,
Out of 64 participating universities in this year’s Stars Program — through which schools directly recommend their top students to universities for admission — only 19 filled their admissions quotas. There were 922 vacancies, down more than 200 from last year; top universities had 37 unfilled places, 40 fewer than last year. The original purpose of the Stars Program was to expand admissions to a wider range of students. However, certain departments at elite universities that failed to meet their admissions quotas are not improving. Vacancies at top universities are linked to students’ program preferences on their applications, but inappropriate admission
On Monday, a group of bipartisan US senators arrived in Taiwan to support the nation’s special defense bill to counter Chinese threats. At the same time, Beijing announced that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had invited Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) to visit China, a move to make the KMT a pawn in its proxy warfare against Taiwan and the US. Since her inauguration as KMT chair last year, Cheng, widely seen as a pro-China figure, has made no secret of her desire to interact with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and meet with Xi, naming it a
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) took the stage at a protest rally on Sunday in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei in support of former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who has been sentenced to 17 years in jail for corruption and embezzlement. Huang told the crowd that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) had sent a message of support the previous day, saying she would be traveling from the south to Taipei: If the protest continued into the evening, she had said, she would show up. The rally was due to end
RSS