Did KMT oppose the strategy at that time?
In the cited interview of March, 2021, Minister Chen stated that his strategy wasnât to invest any money until the trials had gone through 1st and 2nd trials. To whit: âTaiwanâs strategy is to wait until the vaccines pass the second and third phases of clinical trials before investing.â (Chen, March, 2021)
However, at the time he stated this the TW govt. had already given Medigen money back in October, 2020, to eventually total NT$ 472 million, before any trials had even started.
And then on May 30, 2021 the CECC said:
âThe Centers for Disease Control has inked contracts with Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp. and United Biomedical to buy 5 (and up to 10) million vaccine doses from each of them, CECC spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang (èäșșç„„) told reporters. The vaccines developed by Medigen and United Biomedical are still in second-stage clinical trialsâ
So it appears they gave the biotechs the money in October, 2020, before any trials, and then signed the contract in May before theyâd finished the stage 2 trials, which seems to me to contradict Minister Chenâs statements of March, 2021.
If Iâm wrong on the timeline, Iâm happy to be corrected.
In that March interview, Minister Chen was also asked this question:
Interviewer: âHow often do people not tell the full truth?â
Minister Chen: âVery often. The problem is, people tend to forget things, like where they were last week. Another thing is privacy. There is information people donât want to share.â
So maybe he just forgot. Or didnât want to share that theyâd already invested.
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If you ask Chen about this, he wouldnât see the contradiction at all. Clearly, Taiwan treats foreign companies/people differently and with different rules then local companies. The reason Taiwan bought late and so few doses was to give the local companies a monopoly to run their Phase III testing without having to pay for Phase III testing.
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I agree that they clearly wanted a domestic source of the vaccine. That part is obvious.
But I donât think that they did so in order to NOT pay for Phase 3 testing. That would mean that the virus would be running loose in Taiwan (otherwise what are you testing), and if nothing else the authorities here showed great determination to stop that from happening.
Guy
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Vaccines are going the same path as masks. Remember the efforts to build local capacity⊠because there was literally none to buy? For starters.
A new tech from outside vs. a local tech that has previously been used? Where would you put your money?
A local development that cannot be kidnapped by outside forces? Self reliance is a matter of national security. It had to be developed first and foremost.
Moreover, by August this debate will be moot. Like masks, we will have our pick and choose. A proper central distribution center. A fair accessible regulated system.
Right now we have the main cluster at Sky Dragon City, which as per SOP is demanding the lionâs share of resources. As long as we get this out of the picture, a lot of issues will be solved.
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Well we all know that the authorities here have chosen the latter.
Weâll see how this gamble plays out. . .
Guy
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Taiwan ordered vaccines a long time ago. Other countries already got those same vaccines. Some countries even have huge surpluses of said vaccines.
Does anyone know the hold up?
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Great attitude.
So are you talking to Biontech again?
We sent an email to Biontech, but havenât received a response yet.
The suppliers are filling orders in the order they were ordered while Taiwan ordered a long time ago, they still ordered after many other countries, who also had larger orders, so they are at the back of the line for delivery.
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I think we dont know that, Iâm just thinking that they felt that this was less of a risk on their part. I think they just thought they could get away with it till domestic vaccines were ready. But who knows? Stuff like this needs an inquiry so it doesnt happen again.
Making mistakes is one thing, but need to learn from them.
Other countries invested in the vaccine development, so they go the vaccines early. Other countries ordered vaccines in surplus, so even though they have only partially received their allocations, its still sufficient to begin mass vaccination.
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Why do you think this will be the case? We are not sure when the domestic vaccines will be ready, and even with the domestic vaccines, there still will not be sufficient vaccine doses in Taiwan this year.
Translation - we are managing the health budget kind of how you would manage a noodle stand.
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This is denialism on so many levels.
Manufacturing masks is not the same as creating and manufacturing vaccines.
The ânew tech from outsideâ has proven to be the most effective of any vaccine technoloy. Protein subunit vaccines arenât technology that Taiwan created, and not a single one has yet been approved for use against COVID anywhere in the world.
Taiwan screwed the pooch and all thise âwe need to be self-reliantâ talk is just post hoc excuse making for arrogance and incomptence.
Letâs see. âBy Augustâ is little more than a month away. What do you expect to happen on the vaccine front in 5 weeks?
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I donât know how they possibly could have thought this was the less risky option when they knew the timeline for how long it would take for the traditional vaccines to be ready.
The local companies started research way after the MRNA vaccines and had a longer runway for readiness.
While a lot couldnât be predicted back than the time for development and production was easy to see and should have pushed for early investment in a wide range of vaccines like Europe and the US did to diversify the risk.
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Itâs clear that this argument of âbuild local capacity all the thingsâ has done the rounds internally in high government offices. But it fails to appreciate the not so subtle differences between spinning up a mask factory, and developing, approving and producing a vaccine. In the case of vaccines, science I suppose, collaborating internationally is better.
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Sending an email with no response. Thatâs like every Taiwanese company Iâve emailed ever.
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I like it.
Really emphasises the urgency of this matter.
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They probably got it but it âwent to spamâ. 
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So they sent an email to cover themselves. Anyone who has worked in a dysfunctional organisation knows how this shitty game works. What is sad is that they actually think people will eat this up.
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