As the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 continues to rise in Taiwan — measured daily in the tens of thousands rather than the single digits — there has also been an increase in the number of cases with medium to severe symptoms and even deaths.
Particular attention should be paid to elderly people and those with compromised immune systems — such as patients with diabetes, cardiopulmonary diseases, kidney disease and body mass indices over 30 — with authorities ensuring that they receive their booster shots.
Those with weak immune systems and minor symptoms of COVID-19 should be treated with an antiviral to keep their symptoms from becoming severe.
Taiwan has received half of an order of 700,000 courses of the antiviral drug Paxlovid, but this can only treat a little more than 800 hospitalized patients.
This makes no sense, because the most efficient use of the drug is to administer it when a patient has mild symptoms, to prevent their condition from worsening.
When Taiwan was hit with an influenza epidemic in August 2009, regulations stipulated that government-funded prescriptions of the antiviral Tamiflu were only available at hospitals, while people treated at clinics had to pay out of pocket for it, or claim it on their National Health Insurance. Few clinics stocked it.
Naturally, people with simple fevers flocked to major hospitals, exposing themselves to further infection from people with the flu, causing a major headache for doctors and patients alike.
I wrote an article about the situation at the time, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) perhaps took note because five days later, the agency announced that clinics could also prescribe the drug, taking the burden off hospitals. Just like that, the problem was solved.
Taipei and New Taipei City are experiencing a similar situation, but the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) has neglected to allow clinics to take some of the burden from hospitals in the initial stages of this outbreak.
Paxlovid is most effective when administered to members of at-risk groups before their symptoms worsen, to prevent severe symptoms or even death. If the right to prescribe the drug is restricted to hospitals and not extended to clinics — usually the first line of contact with older people — history is likely to repeat itself.
Paxlovid is expensive and supplies are limited, so its prescription needs to be targeted to those most in need. The priority must be clinics with pulmonologists, internists and family doctors; clinics caring for house-bound patients; and clinics conducting polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing for at-risk groups.
Clusters of specialist clinics in local communities could choose one in the community to prescribe antivirals, ideally leaving the decision to the one selected.
The CECC has been cautious, carefully considering the counsel of its panel of experts at every stage, but this has slowed the process. The rapid rise in COVID-19 cases with medium to severe symptoms has added urgency to the correct, targeted use of antivirals. If at-risk groups need to line up at hospitals for PCR testing, wait for the results and be admitted to receive medication, the prescription of antivirals should be left to clinics.
I strongly recommend that Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良), CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), Taiwan Medical Association president Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源), National Taiwan University Children’s Hospital superintendent Huang Li-min (黃立民) and others convene a virtual meeting on the matter — and give people in at-risk groups the news they have been waiting for as soon as the following day.
Wang Fong-yu is chairman of the Kaohsiung County Medical Association.
Translated by Paul Cooper
In a meeting with Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste on Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) vowed to continue providing aid to Haiti. Taiwan supports Haiti with development in areas such as agriculture, healthcare and education through initiatives run by the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF). The nation it has established itself as a responsible, peaceful and innovative actor committed to global cooperation, Jean-Baptiste said. Testimonies such as this give Taiwan a voice in the global community, where it often goes unheard. Taiwan’s reception in Haiti also contrasts with how China has been perceived in countries in the region
On Monday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) delivered a welcome speech at the ILA-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum, addressing more than 50 international law experts from more than 20 countries. With an aim to refute the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) claim to be the successor to the 1945 Chinese government and its assertion that China acquired sovereignty over Taiwan, Lin articulated three key legal positions in his speech: First, the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Declaration were not legally binding instruments and thus had no legal effect for territorial disposition. All determinations must be based on the San Francisco Peace
On April 13, I stood in Nanan (南安), a Bunun village in southern Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪), absorbing lessons from elders who spoke of the forest not as backdrop, but as living presence — relational, sacred and full of spirit. I was there with fellow international students from National Dong Hwa University (NDHU) participating in a field trip that would become one of the most powerful educational experiences of my life. Ten days later, a news report in the Taipei Times shattered the spell: “Formosan black bear shot and euthanized in Hualien” (April 23, page 2). A tagged bear, previously released
The world has become less predictable, less rules-based, and more shaped by the impulses of strongmen and short-term dealmaking. Nowhere is this more consequential than in East Asia, where the fate of democratic Taiwan hinges on how global powers manage — or mismanage — tensions with an increasingly assertive China. The return of Donald Trump to the White House has deepened the global uncertainty, with his erratic, highly personalized foreign-policy approach unsettling allies and adversaries alike. Trump appears to treat foreign policy like a reality show. Yet, paradoxically, the global unpredictability may offer Taiwan unexpected deterrence. For China, the risk of provoking the
RSS