Inoculation of government officials with a second dose of COVID-19 vaccine should be postponed to allow more people to get their first shot, Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如) wrote on Facebook yesterday.
Taiwan has thus far received 8.9 million vaccine doses, but it is a long way until all its 23 million residents are inoculated, she said.
It is crucial to allow every Taiwanese to get their first shot, she said, adding that the second doses for government officials in the second vaccine priority group should be postponed.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Tsai has worked as a nurse at National Taiwan University Hospital’s intensive care unit. Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) worked as surgeon at the same hospital before he assumed office in 2014.
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) gives “important government officials necessary for maintaining disease prevention work” second-highest COVID-19 vaccine priority.
The second priority group includes 160,000 people, of whom more than 10,000 work for central government agencies, including the Presidential Office, National Security Council, Executive Yuan and subordinate agencies, as well as the CECC, Tsai said.
Central government officials who are not deployed in hospitals or pandemic hot spots, and do not deal with COVID-19 patients, should not get their second dose before frontline healthcare workers, she said, adding that the CECC should reserve the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for them.
The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine should be reserved for priority group members who have not received their first dose, she said.
The government should work toward inoculating the largest number of people possible, including foreign residents, with the AstraZeneca jab.
In general, the second dose should be given 12 weeks after the first, but frontline healthcare workers should receive the second dose as early as permitted by the vaccine’s respective guidelines, she said.
No individual is safe until every resident is vaccinated, she said.
Tsai also echoed Ko’s argument that people should be allowed to receive two doses of different vaccine brands, saying that Taiwan’s vaccine supply is unstable.
The University of Oxford has studied inoculations with different vaccine brands, she said, adding that it has completed a study on the combination of the AstraZeneca and the BioNTech vaccines.
The university is working on a study on the combination of the AstraZeneca and the Moderna vaccines, she said.
Some countries, including Germany and Iceland, have approved second-dose vaccinations with the BioNTech or Moderna jabs, following the AstraZeneca vaccine, she said, adding that Taiwan should follow that example.
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