A survey of Taiwanese adults this month showed that more than 60 percent are willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19, but just 1 percent would accept China-made vaccines, the Chinese-language Global Views monthly magazine said.
If the vaccinations are funded by the government, 60.3 percent of respondents said they would get the inoculation, 32.7 percent would not and 7 percent said they had not yet decided.
Of those willing to be vaccinated, 65.4 percent of men said they would get the vaccine, while only 55.5 percent of women welcomed it.
Photo: AFP
People in the transportation and healthcare industries are more willing to receive the vaccine, at 79.4 percent and 75.8 percent respectively, compared with other fields.
The survey also showed that 59.8 and 57.1 percent of respondents were confident in the “efficacy” and “safety” of current vaccines in preventing COVID-19 infection respectively, while 29.4 percent and 32.2 percent respectively still had doubts.
Given a choice, 54.8 percent said they would prefer vaccines made in Taiwan, 31.8 percent preferred those made in Europe or the US and 1.3 percent preferred Chinese vaccines, while 5.7 percent said all vaccines were the same.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, said that the survey’s results were similar to the center’s previous survey in which 66.1 percent of respondents were willing and 27.9 percent were not willing to be vaccinated.
The slight difference might be because the center had surveyed more healthcare professionals and frontline disease prevention workers, who might be more willing to be vaccinated, he said.
The willingness of people to be vaccinated against any disease might be affected by the drug’s efficacy and safety, and the disease situation, Chen said.
He said he believed that if the government is transparent in releasing scientific information about the vaccines, people would become more confident about getting vaccinated.
The telephone survey of Taiwanese aged 18 years and older was conducted from Feb. 4 to Feb. 7, with 1,145 valid questionnaires collected.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS