About three-quarters of Taiwanese believe that a local outbreak of COVID-19 was due to eased quarantine requirements for aircrew members and a shortage of COVID-19 vaccinations, a survey released by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) showed yesterday.
Conducted from Tuesday to Thursday last week, the survey asked members of the public whether they agreed that the outbreak was caused by shortening quarantines for airline personnel to three days, as well as a too-low vaccination rate.
The results showed that 75.7 percent of respondents agreed, while 18.8 percent disagreed and 5.5 percent gave no response.
Photo courtesty of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)
Forty-four percent of respondents were confident that domestically developed COVID-19 vaccines would offer sufficient protection, while 48 percent said they were not confident and 8 percent gave no response, it showed.
The survey showed that 80.3 percent of respondents agreed that Taiwanese-made vaccines should complete phase 3 clinical trials before being administered to the general public, while 14.7 percent disagreed and 5 percent gave no response.
It showed that 87.9 percent of respondents agreed that the government should import enough internationally certified vaccines, and allow people to choose between domestically developed and imported jabs, while 8.2 percent disagreed and 3.9 percent gave no response.
The survey also showed that 64.7 percent of people worried the vaccine shortage would prevent themselves or their families from being inoculated “in a short period of time,” while 33.8 percent were not worried and 1.5 percent gave no response.
KMT Culture and Communications Committee director-general Alicia Wang (王育敏) told an online news conference that even considering vaccine donations from the US and Japan, Taiwan’s vaccination rate would only reach 15.5 percent.
Private groups, including Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and the Tzu Chi Foundation have made attempts to procure vaccinations for Taiwan, Wang said, adding that the government should support their efforts.
A lack of transparency concerning the efficacy of Taiwanese-made vaccines is the main reason people are divided on the issue, the KMT said in a statement.
Various polls have shown that Taiwanese are not opposed to domestic vaccines, it said.
However, people want phase 3 trials to be conducted and the chance to choose which brand of vaccine they receive, the KMT said.
The survey, carried out by Apollo Marketing Research Co via telephone interviews, collected 1,034 valid responses. It had a margin of error of 3.05 percentage points.
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