Or perhaps one gets fatigued from all that bullet-dodging, and makes a mistake.
I wrote this in March of last year (I can’t figure out whom I was responding to back then):
I wrote this in May of last year, in pertinent part:
(boldface added)
I can’t read minds, but my guess is that most people had, and still have, views that were in the neighborhood of mine, i. e., that this was, and still is, a difficult, dangerous thing of uncertain outcome.
Korea said back in November they were going to wait before getting vaccines because they had the virus under control so they could afford t get a better deal.
If I were in Taiwan, I’d wait for the domestically-produced vaccine.
Easy to say when you’re not. For many of us, we don’t have a choice due to poor planning. That or fly to LAX.
A big difference between SK and TW was that SK has been dealing with, and largely controlling, community spread of the virus since March of last year. So its confidence, while probably still ill-advised, was not entirely misplaced.
TW had kept the virus out but it remains to be seen how things will play out now that it’s in. Many of the things that TW is doing proved to be mistakes in other countries, and it’s not doing things that SK proved are very effective, like fast, large-scale targeted testing.
But you’re not, and talk is cheap.
It wasn’t irrational for Taiwan to be patient on the vaccine when it had zero cases forever, based on the information it had.
I still think it’s worthwhile to stimulate the local biotech industry.
The government is.
Has been one of their focuses going forward for a few years now.
Look up CDMO and then try to do some really deep investigation into what companies will be the next TSMC in the CDMO space.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. We’re dealing with a highly infectious virus that was always a risk to slip in and start spreading.
TW had numerous close calls, from the sailors to the NZ pilot to the Taoyuan cluster, and was just overconfident.
Hint: you can invest in your local biotech industry without making your country vulnerable to an outbreak.
If you look at this through a purely economic lens, it’s pretty stupid to risk putting your economy in the shitter so that a few local companies can profit from vaccines. There are plenty of other areas where you can invest in local companies without adopting an epidemic policy that leaves your people stupidly vulnerable.
I’m not even sure how much profit there will be in vaccines since the ability for TW to sell its domestic vaccines overseas (if they prove effective) is questionable.
Not only will TW’s vaccines suffer from late mover disadvantage, if TW really believes that China has interfered with its efforts to acquire vaccines, don’t you think China would interfere with China’s efforts to sell its vaccines outside of TW?
The money is in CDMO; in simple terms, it follows the same blueprint as TSMC.
Do your own research. Start with Google.
Taiwan has some future stars that one can plunk money into for future retirement. It’s already happening.
I’m familiar with CDMO and even own stock in an American CDMO.
This really is not relevant to the situation with TW and its failure to secure vaccines.
IMO it’s pretty clear that TW was overconfident and ill-prepared for an outbreak. For probably mostly political reasons, TW was hoping that it could maintain 0 COVID and vaccinate mostly with domestic vaccines, escaping unscathed from the pandemic and celebrating its success for all the world to see.
It didn’t work out. Now TW is begging for vaccine and you get international press publishing “What went wrong in TW” articles.
I started another thread about a year ago suggesting Taiwan should go into cell therapy manufacturing.
Then the other day on a Taiwanese-American FB group, I saw a job posting for a cell therapy company based in the USA, Taiwanese-owned, with facilities in Taiwan.
Nice photo! It’s interesting that so many people knew in advance to get out to take photos. I did not know till after the event. Also interesting to see such a big plane land at TSA (Taipei), thought big planes had go to Taoyuan.
Japan airlines operates (or at least did, pre-covid) a regular 777 between Tokyo and Songshan.
And in the even older days, when no CKS airport, China Air landed 747s at Songshan.
Yes, do this. Do everything to protect your golden goose.
Major good news coming.
Hat tip to @BeachBum for breaking the news. It’s being discussed in in the Taiwan vaccine thread.
Guy
Why hidden if it is good news?
To make sure that we don’t jinx it.
As forumosans now know, key details are here:
Guy
This is great news indeed. A lot more than expected.
I would like to be a fly on the wall when the decision was made to up the delivery from 750k to 2.5 million. I think a major factor was about sending a strong message to China.
I think it was more important that they send a message to Taiwanese people.