CDC head reflects on COVID lessons, adult vaccination challenges
Taipei, April 29 (CNA) Taiwan's top disease control official on Wednesday reflected on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic at a forum in Taipei, while outlining government efforts to promote vaccination rates.Speaking at the 2026 Europe-Taiwan Healthcare Forum, Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞), director-general of Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC), said the COVID-19 pandemic had "profoundly influenced" Taiwan's adult immunization policy, as well as public attitudes toward vaccination.Following Taiwan's success in keeping COVID-19 largely under control during the early stage of the pandemic in 2020, many people felt there was "no hurry" to get vaccinated when COVID-19 vaccines were first introduced in March 2021, Lo said.Vaccines were made available to medical personnel working in dedicated COVID-19 wards, negative-pressure isolation rooms, or those responsible for specimen collection on March 22, while 10,000 self-paid doses were released to those traveling overseas for business, work, study, medical treatment, or other humanitarian reasons on April 21.At the forum, held by the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan, Lo said that there had been an attitude of "complacency" among the public, recalling that the CDC had been busy at the time trying to "persuade people" to get vaccinated.Learning from that experience, Lo said that in the event of another pandemic, the public should be told early on that "disease prevention measures cannot hold indefinitely."Doing so would allow the government and the public to recognize the limits of disease control measures and "start protecting themselves earlier through vaccination," he said.During large COVID-19 outbreaks in May and June 2021, people began "scrambling to get vaccinated," although Taiwan did not have nearly enough doses at the time.He noted that vaccine supplies were insufficient because many of the doses Taiwan had purchased did not arrive as scheduled, referring to delays amid the global vaccine supply crunch at the time.As one lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic, the CDC head said Taiwan should be prepared to "overbuy" vaccines in future pandemics rather than "being a good student waiting in line."On influenza vaccination among elderly people, Lo said Taiwan's rate has remained at around 50 percent in recent years, lower than the more than 70 percent seen in South Korea and some countries in Europe.Describing vaccine hesitancy as "very difficult" to address, Lo said people in Taiwan had traditionally trusted doctors, but after COVID-19, more have shown "vaccine fatigue," especially toward COVID-19 and other adult vaccines.With people questioning whether they need so many shots, traditional campaigns led by health care workers are no longer enough, he said.That is why the CDC has worked with nonmedical figures, including 86-year-old award-winning actress Chen Shu-fang (陳淑芳), to promote vaccination, Lo said.He added that the public may find such figures more relatable when they say they have also received the shots.
(By Sunny Lai)
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