Taipei Veterans General Hospital and Academia Sinica yesterday rebutted a rumor circulating online alleging that the blood of 1 million Taiwanese is being used by the US to create a viral agent to kill Chinese.
The hospital — which a viral post alleged had been allotted 150,000 blood samples by the Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative to give to the US — said in a statement that there was no truth to the rumor and that it has initiated legal action to charge the person behind the post with defamation.
The Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative is a large-scale genetic study being conducted jointly by a group of medical centers and Academia Sinica with the aim of identifying genetic risk factors linked to the nation’s most prevalent diseases, the hospital said.
Photo: Screen grab from the Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative’s Web site
It called the rumor a work of absurd fiction that negatively affected public health and harmed academic research, adding that the creator of the post clearly had malicious intent.
The hospital has reported the post to the police and demanded that the person behind the rumor retract the allegation and apologize, it said.
In a separate statement, Academia Sinica reiterated that the initiative was an effort to create a database of genetic materials to identify the genetic risk factors that lead to common medical conditions in Taiwan.
The initiative is being conducted in accordance with the Human Subjects Research Act (人體研究法) and monitored by the ethics committees of the medical institutes involved in the project, the state-run research institution said.
The project uses secure physical and digital storage for data and samples, it said, adding that no patient information or sample data had been leaked.
Police took receipt of the hospital’s complaint and an investigation was launched into the incident, the Taipei Police Department’s Beitou Precinct said yesterday.
The police are tracking down the rumor’s origin and its spread on social media, it added.
People who make or spread falsehoods could face legal consequences for libel and alarming the public without cause, it said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
RSS