Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Vaccines vital to national security

Joly Lin 林喬立

The Ministry of Health and Welfare has handled the COVID-19 pandemic well, but now that the situation has changed, it still only continues to tell the public to wash their hands carefully, wear a mask and register wherever it is required to enter a place. Frankly speaking, if a baseball team only knew how to play a defensive game, it would never win.

When the pandemic began, the Cabinet grasped the importance of masks and hand sanitizers, immediately organizing a “national mask team” to start up mass production. As a result, Taiwan was quickly able to resist the first wave.

Securing a worldwide COVID-19 recovery

Jenny Bloomfield 露珍怡

COVID-19 has affected every corner of the globe, clearly showing the importance of international cooperation in responding to the pandemic. As Indo-Pacific democracies, Australia and Taiwan share an interest in an open, inclusive, resilient and prosperous Indo-Pacific region and world that are able to bounce back from shocks like COVID-19.

In the face of the disease, Australia has achieved world-leading health outcomes, with fewer infections, hospitalizations and deaths than most other countries, and it has administered nearly 3 million vaccine doses.

CCP’s vaccine propaganda drive

Taipei Times Editorial

A surge in local COVID-19 infections over the past week has dented the government’s much-lauded success in containing the virus and revealed a critical flaw in Taiwan’s fight against the disease: an inadequate vaccine rollout.

The lack of a domestically produced vaccine, difficulty obtaining foreign jabs due to governments prioritizing their own citizens, vaccine hoarding by some countries and suspected meddling by Beijing to obstruct vaccine sales to Taiwan have stymied Taipei’s efforts to secure a sufficient amount of COVID-19 vaccine doses.

Meanwhile, the reluctance of Taiwanese to get the relatively few available AstraZeneca jabs doused the government’s attempts to kick-start a vaccination program.

Biden must have a clear message

Joseph Bosco

As a Chinese Communist Party attack on Taiwan seems more plausible, three current or former high-ranking US Navy officials recently warned of the danger.

Then-US Indo-Pacific commander admiral Phil Davidson last month told the US Senate Armed Services Committee that China is “developing systems, capabilities and a posture that would indicate that they’re interested in aggression.”

Their intention to take Taiwan could “become manifest in the next six years,” Davidson said.

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