Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members accused pan-blue camp politicians of spreading misinformation after they claimed that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) had already been inoculated before receiving a shot of the locally developed Medigen COVID-19 vaccine yesterday.
Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and New Party legislator Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) said that Tsai had in April visited the American Institute in Taiwan to receive two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, and asked her to take an antibody test and announce the results. His request was backed by KMT members.
DPP Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) yesterday said that “KMT politicians are full of distrust. They have no legitimacy to make such a claim.”
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
Cheng said that when Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, KMT members at the time said that the vaccination was staged.
“People should respect that Tsai is the president, the leader of our nation. Her health condition has to be guarded as a state secret and she does not need to stage a fake event,” Cheng said.
“Tsai is supporting Taiwan’s locally produced vaccine, which is of vital importance to our nation,” he added. “The KMT is suspicious about everything. They lack decency in making such accusations.”
“As the leader of our nation, it is not possible for Tsai to take a medical test whenever someone makes a claim on this issue. It is inappropriate to question our president’s health condition this way. It is regretful to see the KMT resort to such tactics,” Cheng added.
DPP legislative caucus secretary-general Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said there should be reasonable doubt when openly questioning someone, “but we are sorry to see the KMT making unreasonable claims, which are malicious in their intent.”
“The KMT’s actions amount to pouring dirty water on someone to accuse them, then demanding that the person prove their innocence. This is a malicious way of accusation and our society must not tolerate it,” Lo said.
The world is still under the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and outbreaks have been resurging in many countries, DPP legislative caucus director-general Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said.
“We have undertaken the national strategy of producing vaccines domestically, so that we can depend on ourselves and not have to rely on supplies from other countries,” Liu said.
“Tsai is showing her support for Taiwan’s locally produced vaccine, which has undergone trials to obtain scientific data that back its effectiveness. It is good for our president to publicly show her support,” Liu added.
“However, opposition politicians are mocking our president and ridiculing the Medigen vaccine. They are politicizing the issue, making false accusations and vilifying the vaccine. This is not what an opposition party should be doing,” she said.
Separately, the online group MedPartner, comprising medical professionals and cosmetic surgeons, criticized KMT members for spreading the rumor that Tsai had already been vaccinated.
The group on Facebook said that “this is another KMT conspiracy theory, claiming that Tsai had been inoculated with other vaccine brands and already had COVID-19 antibodies. So the KMT demanded that Tsai take a test to check if she had antibodies.”
“This kind of accusation is pointless. Even if Tsai undergoes antibody testing, the KMT and nonbelievers will still say the test result is forged,” the group said.
MedPartner also pointed to an allegation by KMT politicians that Medigen was taking advantage of people receiving its vaccine to “conduct phase 3 clinical trials for free.”
It is a baseless claim by the KMT, Medpartner said.
“People need to follow a process to sign up for a medical trial. They receive detailed medical information and an explanation, and must sign a personal consent form,” it said.
“This is followed by an evaluation of their health conditions and collection of blood samples for follow-up assessments,” it added.
“However, there has been no such collection of blood samples from people receiving the Medigen vaccine before or after inoculation. So what is this ‘free phase 3 clinical trial’ they are talking about ? It is lamentable to see such an accusation from an opposition party,” the group said.
China appears to have built mockups of a port in northeastern Taiwan and a military vessel docked there, with the aim of using them as targets to test its ballistic missiles, a retired naval officer said yesterday. Lu Li-shih (呂禮詩), a former lieutenant commander in Taiwan’s navy, wrote on Facebook that satellite images appeared to show simulated targets in a desert in China’s Xinjiang region that resemble the Suao naval base in Yilan County and a Kidd-class destroyer that usually docks there. Lu said he compared the mockup port to US naval bases in Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan, and in Subic Bay
Police are investigating the death of a Formosan black bear discovered on Tuesday buried near an industrial road in Nantou County, with initial evidence indicating that it was shot accidentally by a hunter. The bear had been caught in wildlife traps at least five times before, three times since 2020. Codenamed No. 711, the bear received extensive media coverage last year after it was discovered trapped twice in less than two months in the Taichung mountains. After its most recent ensnarement last month, the bear was released in the Dandashan (丹大山) area in Nantou County’s Sinyi Township (信義). However, officials became concerned after the
The majority of parents surveyed in northern Taiwan favor the suspension of all on-site classes at schools from the junior-high level and below amid a surge in domestic COVID-19 infections, parent groups said yesterday. About 84.4 percent of respondents in a survey of 2,912 parents in northern Taiwan, where the outbreak is the most serious, said they supported suspending classes, the Action Alliance on Basic Education, the Taiwan Parents Protect Women and Children Association, and the Taiwan Love Children Association said. The groups distributed questionnaires to parents in New Taipei City, Taipei, Keelung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu city and county from Saturday morning
DETERRENCE: US National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell said cross-strait affairs are on the agenda at the US-ASEAN Special Leaders’ Summit The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday thanked the Czech Senate for passing a resolution supporting Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO and other international organizations for the second consecutive year. The resolution was passed on Wednesday with 51 votes in favor, one opposed and 11 abstentions. In addition to the WHO, it also called for Taiwan’s participation in the “meetings, mechanisms and activities” of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the International Civil Aviation Organization and Interpol. In its opening, the resolution states that the Czech Republic “considers Taiwan as one of its key partners in the Indo-Pacific region,” while noting its
RSS