COVID-19 vaccinations to volunteers at Taipei’s Good Liver Clinic were not illegal, despite being against the spirit of the city’s policy, the Taipei City government said yesterday, citing an internal ethics investigation.
The clinic, which has several branches in Taipei, early last week requested 115 vaccine vials, and used them to inoculate volunteers working at the clinic and the Good Liver Foundation, as well as other personnel.
The clinic was fined NT$2 million (US$71,917) and removed from a list of approved vaccination sites.
Taipei Department of Government Ethics Commissioner Shen Feng-liang (沈鳳樑) told a news conference that the Taipei Department of Health on Monday last week approved the clinic’s request, after it had approved a similar application from the Dianthus Pediatric Clinic on May 31.
Dianthus would be summoned to explain its request to investigators, Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) said.
The decision to deliver vaccines to Dianthus was made by health department officials after deliberation, Shen said, adding that department director Huang Shier-chieg (黃世傑) received Dianthus’ request from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kao Chia-yu (高嘉瑜).
However, before authorizing the two clinics’ requests, the health department did not check how many healthcare workers were employed there and how many of them had been vaccinated, Shen said.
The decision to only approve requests from three clinics in the city — Dianthus, Good Liver and another facility, Ho Chung Clinic — was against the spirit of city government policy, she said.
Regarding Good Liver inoculating volunteers, Shen said that the health department had told the clinic that it could only administer vaccines to volunteers who have healthcare worker licenses and are registered with the department.
Vivian Huang said that the city government would discuss potential consequences for Huang Shier-chieg, adding that he is an administrative appointee and the Civil Servants’ Performance Evaluation Act (公務人員考績法) is therefore not applicable.
Separately yesterday, Kao said that she contacted Huang Shier-chieg because she was concerned about the rights of pregnant women and healthcare workers.
Dianthus has only administered vaccines to eligible people in the first three vaccine priority groups, Kao said.
Additional reporting by Chien Hui-ju
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