Prominent businesspeople and figures in entertainment yesterday said that they were on a list and had been vaccinated for COVID-19 at a Good Liver Clinic (好心肝診所) branch in Taipei.
PChome Online Inc chairman Jan Hung-tze (詹宏志) said that he was on the list and had received the vaccination at one of the clinic’s branches, as did TV and radio host Alvin Hou (侯昌明), actors Kuo Tzu-chien (郭子乾) and Jamie Weng (翁家明), and iQiyi executive Young Min (楊鳴).
Judicial personnel are investigating alleged breaches of the law amid a public outcry over the vaccinations, which the clinic said were conducted in the belief that all of Taipei’s healthcare workers had been inoculated.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Critics said that the clinic had favored “wealthy and famous” people to receive its allocation of AstraZeneca vaccines, which would be a breach of Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) policy to prioritize frontline medical personnel, police and emergency-response workers, among others.
Lists published online have been claimed to be of names of those in line to receive vaccines at the clinic.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said that he had handed a list, apparently of names of people who Good Liver Clinic had vaccinated, over to prosecutors.
Prosecutors on Thursday questioned clinic director Sheu Jin-chuan (許金川) and 11 others, and searched clinic offices, as well as Taipei Department of Health offices.
Prosecutors said that corruption charges would be brought if evidence shows that health officials colluded with the clinic to obtain extra allotments of vaccines through falsified requisitions.
The Taipei Medical Association condemned the Taipei City Government in a press release.
“At the time this was written, more than 5,000 medical personnel at Taipei hospitals and clinics have not received jabs, but Good Liver Clinic was provided with vaccines to inoculate people affiliated with its office and even members of the public,” the statement said, demanding that the city government and the clinic explain who authorized its actions.
Meanwhile, prosecutors have initiated an investigation into reports of “VIP access” to COVID-19 vaccines at Taichung Veterans General Hospital.
Elsewhere, Yunlin County prosecutors said that they are investigating possible breaches of CECC policy after Yunlin County Commissioner Chang Li-shan (張麗善) denied “pushing into line” for COVID-19 vaccines on behalf of her brother, former Yunlin County commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味), and his daughter, former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Chang Chia-chun (張嘉郡).
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by