Coronavirus Vaccine in Taiwan - May/June 2021

They won’t say a word until the vaccines are safely stored in a warehouse in Taoyuan.

There is lots of US involvement in vaccine development her. I refer you to my previous links linked above … somewhere.

What’s Voldemort got to do with it?

He’s always sticking his nose into things.

Medigen licensed technology from NIH.

Lots of the vaccine makers have.

Moderna they announced about 12 hours before arrival.

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As we reach the end of May 2021 (and presumably the end of this long thread), it may be helpful to note that @GooseEgg has posted some links of potential interest over here:

Guy

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These petitions are a bit cringe IMO as they focus on semiconductors. “If you don’t save TW you won’t be able to get your semiconductors!”

The first petition also has a categorically false statement:

The only vaccines that Taiwan can access are AstraZeneca from the United Nations, and even those ran out. Now that the US has some vaccines, like Pfizer and Moderna, maybe the US would be willing to sell some of those vaccines to Taiwan to help them.

TW has ordered Moderna and there are private groups within TW that say they can acquire vaccine on their own if the central government doesn’t stand in their way.

As much as I love TW, TW is a wealthy country with a much greater ability to acquire vaccines on its own than many of the countries that legitimately have to beg for vaccine. The fact that the government made bad decisions doesn’t mean TW should become America’s priority.

For reference, there are poor countries in Africa that have absolutely no vaccine.

IMO if the US is going to engage in a humanitarian vaccine sharing program, it should prioritize the helpless, not the incompetent. Doesn’t mean TW couldn’t get vaccine as part of such a program, but to send vaccine to wealthy countries first would not be humanitarian at all.

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Audrey is making a new reservation system. It should replace those made by hospitals and make the process easier.

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I agree the petitions are out of self-interest as all overseas advocates care about is TSMC chips/ semi-conductors. If it helps put the pressure on to get us more vaccines I’m fine with it though.

This is going to sound heartless, but my first priority is to my family and the country I’m living in. Also as I’m reading through the article it seems a lot of them are rejecting offered vaccines due to the same dumb fear mongering over side effects or vaccine elitism, so I’m not sure how much sympathy I should have:

Haiti was slated to receive 756,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine via COVAX, but government officials said they didn’t have the infrastructure needed to conserve them and worried about having to throw them away. Haitian officials also expressed concerns over potential side effects and said they preferred a single-dose vaccine.“

“COVAX, the U.N.-backed program to ship COVID-19 vaccines worldwide, is aimed at helping low- and middle-income countries get access. A few of the countries, though, including Chad, have expressed concerns about receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine through COVAX for fear it might not protect as well against a variant first seen in South Africa.”

The article also says there’s only been 170 deaths in Chad, and the small island nation of Vanuatu has only recorded 3 COVID cases in total. So are they really in that much more need than us, especially considering we serve as an important geopolitical buffer to China?

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Not sure that it will, and long term I think it will only encourage countries to rethink their supply chains. This was already a trend before the outbreak. See: the US pressuring TSMC to build more facilities in AZ.

Fair enough.

Well, it seems Haiti’s primary concerns were around infrastructure and Chad’s were around the efficacy of AZ against the South African variant, which perhaps is more of a threat there?

In TW, the people, not the government, thumbed their nose at AZ.

Chad is an incredibly poor country. Over 60% of its population lives in extreme poverty. You cannot take this number at face value. It is likely much higher. Out of 222 countries tracked, Chad ranks 200th in testing per capita. Source

Yeah, well I guess people who love TW can have dramatically different views. It’s sad for me to see TW acting like a beggar state and I strongly feel that countries that are truly helpless deserve to be helped before a country that said it could help the world and took its eye off the ball.

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Seems it’s not yet a done deal. Far from it.

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US$ 45.6 per dose :hushed:
Apparently EU paid less than US$ 25 and the US paid around US$ 20…

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Small change to get things moving forward. Cash greases the wheels. I was paying 1200 ntd by myself for AZ.
Folks here pay 7000 ntd for a PCR test.

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Any news about the arrival? How many doses?

The shipment was last week. 150k.

Some interesting numbers today.

34k vaccinated yesterday, and now they are reporting that 642k doses have been distributed. So only about 5 days of stock left at this rate.

Also now starting to count those that got the full two doses. So 450k got at least one dose, not 461k.

Last page says two serious reactions today, no moderna use yet.

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Won’t the Moderna 150k be ready for use soon?

Not for the general public.

I mean to boost the overall number in Taiwan. So that we’re not stopping vaccinations altogether.

Or do you mean this will go to medical workers only (or something like that)?

As far as this document goes, no news about it. I should probably be listening to the stream rather than typing this out :thinking: