Coronavirus Vaccine in Taiwan - July/August 2021

Life Health & Fitness
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Well the point I was making was that “I’m sure more than 70% of adults in Taiwan would be willing to get Pfizer or Moderna, but not sure about AZ.”

The US has its fair share of problems when it comes to increasing vaccination rate due to misinformation and fearmongering. I think very few large countries will reach 90% vaccination rate anytime soon. But the point is, a lot of the US has reopened and things have gone back to normal. The economy is doing well (or at least it seems like it) and millions of jobs have been created in the last few months.

That’s the goal for every country at the moment - Have enough supply so that everyone who wants it can get it and then reopen once a threshold has been met.

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They offered millions of doses to the Palestinians weeks ago but they refused them. My thoughts were about donations to Taiwan as well.

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I understand that too.

But come on folks! We have two separate deliveries of AZ arriving this week.

We have increase uptake with vaccination rates.

We have a new national interface (Audrey’s platform) that just launched today.

There is actually stuff happening that we might, you know, actually stop and notice. :slightly_smiling_face:

Guy

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There’s a lot going on now, if it’s about the politics of Taiwan’s various decision making during this process, this looks like a better home:

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So we have two shipments of AZ scheduled to arrive this week.

The first is part of our contract to buy 10 million vaccines from AZ. This latest shipment—Liberty Times says 620,000 expected doses—will reportedly arrive tomorrow, on Wednesday 7/7.

The second is another donation from Japan who reportedly will be sending us some AZ product—in this case 1.13 million doses—actually made in Japan. That shipment will reportedly arrive on Thursday 7/8.

It’s awesome that Japan has stepped up again! But here I want to have a closer look at the AZ delivery from our contract. This batch, unlike the previous ones, is coming from the ill-starred factory in Thailand which has been dealing with problems and delays. So I dug a bit further to try to understand what was going on. If you’re interested, read on.

A report from Bloomberg (link below) had this to say about the situation back on June 11:

AstraZeneca’s choice of Thai partner raised questions from the start. Unlike India’s Serum – which was the world’s biggest vaccine maker before the pandemic – and other Asia partners like South Korea’s SK Bioscience Co., Siam Bioscience is new to the vaccine-making business.

The company was founded in 2009 as Thailand’s first domestic bio-pharmaceutical drugmaker by the father of the nation’s current King Maha Vajiralongkorn, to provide cheaper alternatives to imported drugs. It has also made Covid test kits.

It’s set up by the Crown Property Bureau, an agency that managed assets for the palace no matter who sat on the throne. The company had been operating at a loss in the four years leading up to the year of pandemic, when it brought in a net profit of 35.8 million baht ($1.1 million), according to data published by the Department of Business Development.

In February, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha said Siam Bioscience does not seek to profit from making the Astra vaccines.

Royal Links
Complicating matters is Thailand’s lese majeste law, which can see jail time of up to 15 years for defaming the royal family. Its sweeping mandate means that little is said publicly about Siam Bioscience, even as concerns over vaccine supplies grow.

In January, Thai officials said that Siam Bioscience would make 200 million doses each year. They haven’t spoken publicly again about the company in detail since.

When former prime-ministerial candidate Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit suggested that Siam Bioscience’s royal ties played a role in its appointment as AstraZeneca’s partner, the high-profile government critic was charged with royal defamation.

Prime Minister Prayuth apologized this week to the public for the delay, blaming “supply and distribution issues” without elaborating. Neither the Thai government nor Siam Bioscience responded to repeated requests for information on what is causing the supply shortfalls.

One Thai healthcare industry veteran, who asked not to be identified for fear of legal repercussions, likened the situation with Siam Bioscience to a bakery that just started making bread.

“They still haven’t perfected their craft,” he said. “None of us really knows their production capacity because they haven’t publicized it and we can’t criticize it. No one is willing to say. They can’t say it, because it’s Siam Bioscience.”

Let’s just say this is not an ideal situation . . .

Source: Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Guy

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Worst part about this is that their people will be the ones to suffer while Hamas will use this as propaganda to say how evil Israel is…

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Yeah this is why its unlikely will get the AZ by end of December as planned

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These kind of manufacturing issues are also why its going to be hard to rely on the domestic vaccines, big companies have a lot of problems with initial batches

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If only it would have been possible for TW to manufacture AZ.

Oh, wait.

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Yep.

It started like 3000 people vaccinated per day. Last week it was 100 thousand. Yesterday over 200 thousand.

My market friends are getting vaccinated today. For me that’s great. Safer for them, their families, their customers and yours truly among the neighbors.

I think it is great the humble people are not forgotten and that the authorities realized that they had made a mistake not including market folk before and corrected it. They did not hide that fact or eluded responsibility by avoiding the correct response. And thank Japan and US for their help these market folk can be vaccinated.

If your house is on fire, you do not care that the firemen come and find you naked and there is underwear hanging in the living room. You appreciate the help. Optics my foot.

Taiwan helped with masks because that is what Taiwan had. Now it needs vaccines. It would actually look bad if no one came to help when you needed it.

There is a story about someone always helping their neighbors but occasionally asking for a cup of sugar. The child asks why they ask for sugar if their house has plenty. Well the mother explains, it is not about the sugar. It is about making them feel like they make a contribution. That is why we welcome Lithuania’s help. But we actually do need all the sugar anyone can spare.

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Nobody said not be thankful, or to ask for help when needed. Other countries thanked Taiwan for masks and PPE last year, while at the same time realising they made a mistake and needed to change policy.

Right now Taiwan is being bailed out by the private sector and some allies, thats fine for now, but shouldnt constantly happen,

But if you are constantly asking for donations, especially as a wealthy country, its embarrassing. Taiwan needs to project to the world that its strong and self-reliant and in that way, other countries will be willing to ally with Taiwan.

Sure but we are nowhere near close enough to where we need to be if there is an outbreak. The situation is not good at all

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If you want to bicker or are not going to respond to someone’s arguments but rather insult them in various ways, take it somewhere else please.

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Priority will follow age. So 64 year olds first, 50 year olds last.

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about 5.5mil people in priority groups 1~8, and about 6.5mil vaccines arrived including almost arrived ones. about 2.5mil are already vaccinated at least once.

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And group 8 is only half done as 65-69 are in limbo still.

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Ok, if you use the NHI app, the vaccination reservation system uses the same authentication through your phone number and NHI number. Although, after authentication, when you click on the button to register which kind of vaccine you are willing to receive, it takes you to the website.

If you go directly to the website through the URL, the authentication requires both the National ID (not sure if ARC number would work), and the full NHI card number.

Although, when I tried both, I get the “You are not allegeable for the current phase” message.

My wife was able to sign her parents up using the website, but instead of getting a assigned time slot and location for vaccination, all it does is report back that whether you are up for just Moderna, AZ, or if you are ok with either one.

I am guessing that the local government is then responsible for notifying you the time slot and location.

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Are you spitballing—or have you read this?

Guy

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14 posts were merged into an existing topic: From coronavirus

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I’ll rereply to this. Minister Chen mentioned in passing that they’ll prioritize according to age.

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Note we’re not at the stage of registering for a vaccination slot yet. This is really just to get your name in the system so they can figure out the numbers per locality and allocate the vaccines once they arrive.

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