Medical personnel wait before taking the Moderna vaccination against the COVID-19 coronavirus at a Hospital in New Taipei City, the island of Taiwan, on June 9, 2021. Photo: AFP

A group of Taiwan people have sued Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's regional leader, and others in her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for politicalizing the pandemic to benefit themselves. One scholar accused them of adopting policies which "severely endanger people's lives and health" amid the island's ravaging new COVID-19 wave.

Chang Ya-chung, a Taipei-based political scientist and member of the Kuomintang (KMT), and Chung Chin, former director-general of Taiwan's information office, and others filed a lawsuit on Friday to the Taiwan Taipei District Prosecutor Office against Tsai, Su Tseng-chang, head of Taiwan's executive body, and Chen Shih-chung, the head of Taiwan's health authorities.

Chang said that the death rate of Taiwan's COVID-19 infections has stayed above the world average with a recording close to 3 percent. Yet Tsai, along with other two Taiwan officials, not only thwarted the mainland's help of vaccines, but also supported Taiwan local vaccines, which have not gained WHO recognition. 

The scholar accused those three officials of misconduct, desire of profiting themselves and "killing people with policies."

Taiwan's regional authority has rejected 30 million doses of BioNTech-Fosun vaccine preordered by Taiwan pharmacopolists in 2020. At the same time, it fooled its people by saying the importation of vaccines was obstructed by Chinese mainland intervention.

When the island of Taiwan faced worsening COVID-19 situation in late May, people in Taiwan began to donate vaccines they purchased from the Chinese mainland and other countries, including 5 million doses from Sinopharm and 5 million vaccines produced by BioNTech which were purchased by Chang himself. Yet Tsai's secessionist authority rejected those donations, citing excuse of administrative procedures, at a time when the island is still facing severe shortages of vaccines, according to Chang. 

Then, before the vaccine produced by Medigen Vaccine Biologics Co releases its Phase-II trial data, Tsai on May 18 asked people on the island to take the vaccine in July. This fueled the soaring of the company's stock price. Chang said by doing this, Tsai is under the suspicion of interfering with the stock market to benefit others.  

Then Tsai announced on May 31 that they will purchase 5 to 10 million vaccines from the company, a decision Chang said goes against scientific and rational policymaking. 

Chen Pei-jer, a scholar with Taiwan's top research institution, resigned last week from the island's COVID-19 vaccine review committee. Chen criticized Tsai for making comments that could put pressure on the vaccine review committee to approve vaccines made in Taiwan.

Tsai authorities' action of forcing people to use locally produced vaccines, which haven't undergone a Phase-III trial, has sparked public outrage in Taiwan. Tsai on Friday apologized for the loss of lives in the island due to the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Global Times