DOH begins program for national flu vaccinations

STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Saturday, Dec 12, 2009, Page 2

The Department of Health (DOH) reassured the public again yesterday that the A (H1N1) vaccines are safe, as a national vaccination program begins today in the wake of an initial round of immunizations targeting specific groups.

Department of Health Deputy Minister Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said that between the start of the immunization program on Nov. 1 and last Monday, 2.6 million people had received shots. Of the 242 reported cases of possible side effects, most people complained of dizziness, fever, headache, nausea, vomiting and shortness of breath, he said and most recovered within 48 hours.

The 44 more serious cases included miscarriage, sudden death and weak legs.

Chang urged the public not to be alarmed by the figures, adding that even without the immunization program, there would be a certain ratio of miscarriage, sudden death and neuritis, while the department said the ratio was no different than that of seasonal flu vaccination programs in past years.

City hospitals in Taipei and Kaohsiung, as well as the department’s hospitals around Taiwan, will hold a competition, with the hospitals and doctors giving the most shots receiving commendations from the Central Epidemics Prevention Center, officials said.

There will also be temporary immunization stations set up in big department stores, hypermarkets, railway stations and temples, the officials said, adding that to encourage the public to get the shots, agricultural produce, stationery sets and lucky draws will be offered at these stations.

Groups that have received shots include typhoon victims in shelters, high-risk medical personnel, elementary-school students, pre-school children, pregnant women and seriously ill patients.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday urged pregnant women and children aged between six months and one year old to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

“The rate for pregnant women is the lowest among all priority groups. While the total of A [H1N1] influenza cases in children aged between six and 12 months is also increasing,” CDC spokesman Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said.

Of the about 200,000 pregnant women in the nation, only 13,270 have received shots, Chou said.

“Approximately 75 percent of the nation’s elementary school students are now protected,” Chou said.

MOE chief says schools to be ‘stuffed’ with Chinese

STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Saturday, Dec 12, 2009, Page 2

Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji (吳清基) expressed his pride in the country’s vocational education system yesterday and anticipated that junior college vocational schools around the nation would be “stuffed” with Chinese students once they are allowed to enroll in Taiwan’s colleges and universities.

“Taiwanese schools are attractive enough to draw Chinese students,” Wu said at the 44th founding anniversary of Meiho Institute of Technology in Pingtung County.

Taiwan’s vocational education is globally recognized as being of the same quality as that in Germany and Australia, Wu said, saying that National Pingtung University of Science and Technology’s Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation is the only school of its kind in the world.

Taichung City-based National Chung Hsing University enjoys a reputation on a par with Japan’s prestigious University of Tokyo in agricultural and biotech research, he said.

Wu said he believes academic exchanges between Taiwan and China will help further ease political tensions, but he also said that safeguards are in place to prevent Chinese students from seizing education resources from local students, as some fear.

The safeguards include restrictions on the number of Chinese students allowed to enter Taiwan, not offering scholarships to Chinese students and prohibiting Chinese students from staying in the country to work after they finish their studies, the minister said.

The ministry has begun a series of 17 separate public hearings around the country on the policy to open its doors to Chinese students and recognize academic credentials from Chinese universities.

City sponsoring activities to mark Kaohsiung Incident

STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Saturday, Dec 12, 2009, Page 3

Thirty years after a demonstration in Kaohsiung turned into a brutal confrontation between the pro-democracy opposition and the authorities on Dec. 10, 1979, the Kaohsiung City Government is sponsoring a series of commemorative activities to mark the struggle for democracy and human rights.

The Kaohsiung City Government and various civic groups started the commemorative program last month, including seminars, a photograph and archive exhibition, a concert, a two-day symposium starting today and a rally slated for today in downtown Kaohsiung.

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), one of the opposition activists who attended the rally in front of the Kaohsiung headquarters of Formosa Magazine (美麗島雜誌) and who was arrested and jailed for several years for her part in the Formosa Incident, or Kaohsiung Incident as it is known internationally, visited an exhibition of photos and archives at the former headquarters of the magazine on Thursday.

Looking back over the past 30 years, Chen said she had mixed feelings about the incident and the years that followed, since it was the first time she had stepped into the building that housed the magazine.

Formosa Magazine was created in the summer of 1979 by a group of people calling for an end to martial law and demanding democratic elections and the lifting of a ban on unauthorized newspapers and political parties.

The incident was sparked when magazine staff and opposition politicians held a rally to mark World Human Rights Day in Kaohsiung under tight police surveillance.

Lamenting the fleeting 30 years, Chen said she was grateful toward the land that nourished the aspirations for democracy and freedom, toward the people who came to their protection and defense when they were on trial, and toward the families of those jailed, for their understanding and support.

Some of the Formosa comrades, like late Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Huang Hsin-chieh (黃信介), have died and some have taken different paths, Chen said, adding that she honors the decisions of those who declined to take part in the commemorative activities.

Former DPP chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德), for instance, refused to attend, while former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who as a young lawyer represented some of those put on trial by the KMT following the incident, is in detention, conducting an appeal against his life sentence for graft and corruption.

COA to work on labor rights for PRC fishermen
　

By Vincent Y. chao
STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, Dec 12, 2009, Page 4

The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday said it hoped the upcoming cross-strait talks could resolve the long-neglected issue of labor rights for Chinese fishermen working on Taiwanese vessels.

“By formulating a policy on [Chinese] fishermen, we can create a more humanitarian working environment as well as ensure the safety of our fishing vessels,” Council Deputy Minister Hu Sing-hwa (胡興華) told a media briefing.

The fourth meeting between Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yun-lin (陳雲林), will take place on Dec. 22.

Policies including labor rights for Chinese fishermen and standardizing import procedures for agricultural goods will be among the four main items on the agenda.

Hu said he did not foresee any major changes in the number of Chinese fishermen working on Taiwanese boats after the signing of the agreement.

The government first allowed local fishing vessels to hire Chinese workers 15 years ago amid a shortage of domestic workers, which officials attributed to the low pay and hard working conditions. It lifted a ban on Chinese workers entering domestic ports in 2003 following protests by human rights organizations over their poor treatment.

Council figures show that the average monthly pay for Chinese workers was just under NT$15,000 last year. Although this was higher compared with the pay for other foreign workers, many operators prefer hiring Chinese workers because they speak the same language.

While Taiwanese workers on fishing vessels are covered by labor laws, workers from China are not.

Hu said creating a clear chain of responsibility starting with China-based agencies that provide the workers to improving their working conditions would also ensure the safety of Taiwanese crews and vessels.

Council statistics shows 25 cases of hijackings by Chinese crewmembers and 11 cases of murder. Since the government allowed Chinese workers to enter local ports, there have also been 402 cases of Chinese absconding, with 149 still at large.

“We still encourage fishing vessel operators to hire Taiwanese workers, but the fact is many Taiwanese do not want this job,” Hu said, adding that the COA has instituted policies to encourage Taiwanese to join the industry, including a monthly subsidy of NT$10,000 in addition to bonuses offered by the Council of Labor Affairs.

The COA also promised to draw attention to Taipei and Beijing’s different import inspection standards for agricultural goods, which it said has hurt Taiwanese agricultural industries.

“Because of the differing regulations, many Taiwanese products have a hard time entering the Chinese market,” Hu said.

Taiwan exported NT$14 billion (US$436 million) in agricultural goods to China last year.

Hu promised the council would not ease its regulations — including requiring agricultural goods to undergo 657 types of inspections before they are admitted for imports in line with international standards — to conform with China's.

“Instead, [Beijing] should follow our standards to improve its own and catch up with the international community,” he said.

Hu had no comment when asked if China's import regulations represented an invisible trade barrier to protect their domestic manufacturers, as Taiwanese fruit suppliers have alleged.

Swine flu pandemic ‘less lethal’ than thought: UK study
　

SURVIVORS: The report said there were 26 fatalities out of every 100,000 cases, but a third were among the healthy, who wouldn’t have been on vaccination lists

THE GUARDIAN, LONDON
Saturday, Dec 12, 2009, Page 6

The first flu pandemic of the 21st century is less lethal than experts feared, killing only 26 out of every 100,000 people who became ill, a study by the chief medical officer for England and Wales said on Thursday.

But a third of deaths have been among healthy people who would not have been eligible for vaccination under the present strategy. The medical officer, Liam Donaldson, and colleagues say in their paper published online that vaccination may have to be extended to a wider population than at present.

An estimated 540,000 people have gone down with swine flu in England since a pandemic was declared in July and there have been 138 deaths where flu was confirmed as the cause.

In spite of the concern for children and young people, there has been a particularly high fatality rate in the oldest age group, just as there was in previous pandemics. The over-65s are less likely to get flu, the results show, probably because they have been exposed to other H1N1 viruses in the past, but if they get it, they are at greater risk than most.

“The 1918-19 pandemic was characterized by high case fatality rates among young healthy adults. There is no evidence of this from our analysis of the current pandemic,” the paper says. “Our estimate of the case fatality rate compares favorably with those in the three 20th century influenza pandemics. The rate in the 1918-19 H1N1 pandemic was 2%-3%. Rates in the subsequent pandemics (1957-58 and 1967-68) were in the order of 0.2%.”

The case fatality rate in the current pandemic is 0.026 percent.

There are many different reasons for this, the study says. Estimates in the past will have been less accurate than they are today and people may have died from other circulating viruses as well as flu. Improvements in the food people eat, their housing and healthcare may also make a difference to survival these days. Modern intensive care treatment is a big factor.

“Many more patients might have died in England without the ready availability of critical care support, including mechanical ventilation,” it says.

Two thirds of those who died (67 percent) would have been eligible for vaccination if it had been available, the authors say, because of their age or a health problem such as asthma, but that leaves a third who would not have been vaccinated.

“Our findings ... show that a substantial minority of deaths are occurring outside [high risk] groups. Wider population vaccination therefore merits consideration,” the report says.

Most who died (78 percent) were given antiviral drugs (mainly Tamiflu), but only a quarter got them within the necessary 48 hours after symptoms appear.

A lapse or a strategy? It’s a worry either way
　

By Jerome Keating
Saturday, Dec 12, 2009, Page 8

‘The distinction between private and public hardly seems applicable here.’

The most significant outcome of last Saturday’s elections was the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) regaining power in its former stronghold of Yilan County.

Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), as both president of Taiwan and chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), had zealously and extensively campaigned there to prevent this, putting both his and his party’s reputation on the line.

Despite this, the people of Yilan voted in the DPP candidate. Whether this can be interpreted as evidence of growing public distrust in their president is one matter.

But there is another issue that needs to be raised: the significance of Ma breaking the law during the campaign.

Article 53 of the Election and Recall Act (選舉罷免法) forbids any discussion, mention or citing of public opinion polls 10 days before an election by officials or the media. Ma broke this law when he quoted an opinion poll within the restricted period.

Using this poll, he said that the race in Yilan was tight and that KMT members should work harder to win. Was Ma trying to speak to an audience other than KMT voters?

Ma’s public relations team and even foreign media outlets like to tout him as a Harvard-educated lawyer — even though he never passed a bar exam in the US or Taiwan.

Ma did study law at Harvard and did graduate, however, so one might presume that as a legally versed president of Taiwan, he would be more sensitive to a law banning the citing of polls in the days before an election.

The law is meant to prevent people from using nebulous polling to influence the results of an election. It applies to everyone, but is especially relevant to those who might try to use a position of power to sway an election.

In his defense, the KMT said that Ma did not realize it was less than 10 days before the election. Now 10 can be a hard number to calculate, especially if one is counting backwards, but one would hope that someone who went to Harvard could handle this situation with more care.

Further, the KMT said that Ma was speaking privately, not publicly, and so should be excused.

The distinction between private and public hardly seems applicable here. How can comments be anything but public when the person speaking is the president of the country and when they are delivered during an election campaign with a media entourage in tow?

In an unusual admission of error, Ma said that he was personally responsible and that he would pay the fine imposed on him by the Central Election Commission. This is all well and good, but deeper issues remain.

Is all of this simply a matter of Ma not knowing what day it is?

Or does Taiwan have a president who would deliberately step outside the bounds in an attempt to ward off a potentially embarrassing election result?

In either case, there is cause for concern — particularly with matters such as an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China, the nation’s sovereignty and other key issues about to be placed on the table.

Jerome Keating is a writer based in Taipei.

Six degrees could change the world

Saturday, Dec 12, 2009,Page 14

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We have signs of very great changes occurring on the planet. Everything has happened so fast. Creeks are drying up that have never dried up in a lifetime. We’ve got a forest that’s already on the edge of disappearing. We’re going into uncharted territory. Our planet is at a crossroads. Global warming isn’t out of control, but it soon could be. The warning signs are all around us. This is the challenge of climate change: What can we do about global warming? What will happen to the Earth if we don’t? The temperature is rising and each degree is critical. A 6°C increase is almost unimaginable.

Imagine what the 21st century will be like if global warming accelerates. Where will the next super-storm hit? The next scorching heat wave? As the world warms degree by degree, where will the next catastrophe hit? The debate has ended. Scientists around the globe agree we now live in a world warmer by almost 1°C. An armada tracks the earth’s vital signs, with thousands of ships at sea. Meanwhile, there are tens of thousands of stations on land, and satellites monitor from space. Scientists feed the data into the most advanced computer models to calculate what it means for our future. The predictions are alarming.

In four decades, glaciers in the Himalayas — the source of water for millions — could be gone. Within 50 years, the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet could be unstoppable. By the end of this century, the Amazon rainforest — home to half the world’s biodiversity — could wither to an arid savannah. We’re on the brink of living in a world 1°C warmer, hotter than it’s been in thousands of years. A temperature rise between 1°C and 6°C is possible over the next century. Each degree means a radically different future. In some parts of the world, the first signs of global warming may be arriving with a vengeance. In Australia, bush fires are a natural part of the ecosystem, especially in drought years. But climate change may be pushing conditions from bad to worse. Australia’s east coast is a tinderbox. In the winter of 2001, more than 900 fires encircled Sydney. They called it Black Christmas.