Gov't Could Have Avoided Many Deaths: Gou 郭台銘:在總統蔡英文恩准下 辛苦引進BNT

Hon Hai founder Terry Gou said the current government administration does not value the lives of people, citing the example of BNT vaccines. Hon Hai, TSMC, and Tzu Chi were able to bring the vaccines into Taiwan only after receiving authorization from President Tsai. However, if they had arrived even two months earlier, the number of deaths would have been greatly reduced. 

Victor Wang, Commander, Central Epidemic Command Center: “At that point in time, there was a shortage of vaccines. We also faced huge obstructions from the outside. We tried so hard to bring vaccines in as quickly as possible. In the early stages, there were AZ vaccines and vaccines donated by other countries. Later on, three of our companies made donations and we did our best to assist. I think looking at it in hindsight or talking about what could have been done earlier… I think everyone did their best to help.”

Gou also said that his mother was unable to get a BNT next-gen vaccine. CECC Commander Victor Wang responded that Taiwan has received all the BNT monovalent vaccines it ordered and people can also get the Moderna vaccine. He said the contract with Moderna stipulates that new products can replace old ones and there is also supply flexibility. However, the contract with BNT doesn't have these stipulations.

中央流行疫情指揮中心指揮官王必勝表示：「在那個時間點疫苗是缺乏的，我們在國際上的阻力也是很大，我們都盡了全力，希望把疫苗趕快進進來。最早的時候，AZ疫苗的時候，還有其他國家的捐贈，後來我們3個企業的捐贈，我們都竭盡全力在協助。我覺得用這種早知道，或者是再早一點，我想大家都盡了全力在幫忙。」

至於郭台銘指出自己的母親打不到BNT次世代疫苗，王必勝也強調，BNT單價疫苗目前都已經到貨，次世代目前也有莫德納可以打，主要是因為莫德納合約有答應，如果未來有新產品可以更換，且供貨上有彈性，但BNT的合約沒有這類規定，因此無法更換成次世代疫苗，這是疫苗整體的採購策略。