Public health experts at National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday urged the government to loosen drug testing regulations and direct more funds to the development of medication and a vaccine for COVID-19.
As some countries are entering a “post-COVID-19 period,” the development of medication and a vaccine are key to ending the pandemic, NTU College of Public Health dean Chan Chang-chuan (詹長權) said in the college’s 12th weekly report on COVID-19.
Aside from infected people who have produced antibodies, the majority of the global population does not have antibodies for the novel coronavirus, so developing a vaccine has become an urgent problem for governments, he said.
Chan said that the government should view the global competition to develop testing kits, medication and vaccines as if “in time of war,” and loosen the regulations for experiments and clinical trials — for example by allowing the omission of certain steps, allowing some procedures to be conducted simultaneously, or giving advanced approval.
“The government had prepared in advance to block the virus at the nation’s borders, but it must continue to make advance preparations regarding disease prevention technology by loosening regulations and investing more funding,” he said.
Analyzing the global spread of COVID-19 in the past week, college vice dean Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said that the spread in Europe seems to have slowed, but cases in the Maldives, Bangladesh and Singapore have increased rapidly.
While the spread in New Zealand and Australia has slowed, the number of cases in South Africa increased, as the country had boosted its testing capacity in the past two weeks, Chen said.
He also used the epidemic curve of the Diamond Princess cruise ship to estimate the progress of an outbreak on the navy supply ship Panshih (磐石). A cluster of 31 cases have been confirmed among its crew.
“Based on the index case having suffered the onset of symptoms around March 23, the estimated number of infected people is about 70, with a possible 31 people having recovered and 39 people still infected,” he said.
Chen said that the cluster on the vessel is “very unlikely” to cause community infection, adding that as the crew are all under centralized quarantine, this would be a good chance to use their antibody test results to evaluate herd immunity on an infected vessel, which would also benefit the development of medication and a vaccine.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS