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The long and winding road to trust in vaccination

FREEPIK

Discussions continue in many parts of the country on the easing of mobility restrictions to reopen the economy, restore its health, and bring back jobs and the livelihood of many. However, economic recovery will only happen once public health is restored and for that to occur, vaccine hesitation has to be overcome by many.

In a study by the EON Group and its research partner, Tangere, out of 4,400 respondents, 64% are still unconvinced about getting vaccinated. The primary reasons for hesitancy are fear of the long-term side effects, its efficacy and safety, in addition to brand distrust. People with pre-existing conditions worry that these will make them sicker, some think these do not work or don’t believe in vaccines at all, while others are not permitted because of religious beliefs.

While over a million vaccine doses have already trickled in and have been administered to priority groups like healthcare workers, senior citizens, and those with comorbidities, and millions more are expected to arrive in the coming months, vaccine hesitancy is still a cause for concern as this could push back the attainment of herd immunity farther down the line.

A scenario more chilling than the protracted delay of vaccine arrival in the Philippines would be this: a glut in the vaccine supply left untouched and nearing their expiration date; empty vaccination centers, with the remaining hope for herd immunity rapidly fading into obscurity. Hard to imagine, but that is a very palpable future if vaccine hesitancy is left unaddressed.

It’s no surprise that a large part of the population is uncertain about vaccines. The experience with Dengvaxia still affects many Filipinos, and the messages that have so far been delivered are perceived by many to be inconsistent, incomplete, or a combination of both. Current research sends a chilling message over what is required to gain the Filipinos’ trust in vaccines, with many of our people more comfortable with their peers’ assessment of vaccines rather than those coming from qualified health professionals.

By now, many of us have grown familiar with the COVID-19 vaccine vocabulary. Antibodies, antigen, immune response, and other terms have become more common than ever, and we can recite almost all the vaccine brands in our sleep. While the outlook for vaccination is optimistic, there is still a need to address the many issues that surround our nation’s vaccination program.

Having heard the public’s sentiments through the EON survey, the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) has organized a series of online events to allow its members to discuss the issues surrounding vaccines. An initial roundtable discussion in late March gave a better understanding of how many of the population have uncertainties with regard to vaccines, what ideas fuel these uncertainties, and what can be done to assuage their fears. Health scientists as well as experts in workplace management gave proper context to the issues at hand.

Following the roundtable discussion, the MAP General Membership Meeting, entitled “Buy-in, Opt-out: Why Trust Matters in the Vaccine Program,” provided another opportunity to shed light on the issues surrounding Filipinos’ trust of vaccines.

Dr. Esperanza Cabral, former Secretary of Health and a staunch public health advocate, took the stage to talk about how the vaccine confidence gap can be addressed. She elaborated on how the playbook for trust building should include: 1.) fighting disinformation on Dengvaxia and COVID-19 vaccines, 2.) correcting deficiencies in government health services, and, 3.) providing hope that we can get out of this by working together.

On the other hand, Dr. Benjamin Co, a pediatric infectious disease expert from the UST Hospital and the Asian Hospital, responded to the most frequently asked questions about the vaccines in order to demystify the many myths about them.

Allow me to share key points from their presentations which will help us build the level of confidence in vaccination to move our country forward. First, we need leaders with impeccable reputation to speak and educate others on the effectiveness of vaccines. These spokespersons must be able to present themselves before a diverse audience and facilitate two-way communication, validating the causes of vaccine hesitancy, and working deliberately to develop trust-based relationships that can move Filipinos past their fears.

Next, we must develop key messages that can be easily communicated across all platforms and audiences, making sure that the information contained have been vetted by experts and comes from reliable sources, as any lapses in the messaging and information supplied runs the risk of further alienating those who already have negative perceptions. Those who are at the helm of producing and executing information campaigns must be cautious and maintain a laser focus so that only correct information reaches the targeted audiences.

Lastly, once we have recognized opinion leaders who can convey unified messages, the next focus should be on community engagement. It is imperative that we develop a keen understanding of the audiences we are talking to in order to deliver nuanced communication that can effectively overcome resistance. No doubt the change in outlook will not happen overnight; time, effort, and faith in our message is essential to get our country to where it needs to be. We must always remember that this is a conscious and collaborative effort that requires patience and passion.

I would like to close by reiterating the non-negotiable nature of patience and passion, as I am sure that by now, many of us are exhausted by the impact that COVID-19 has had on our economy, on our sense of order, and, most importantly, on our people. It can be very tempting to lose steam and default to the “bahala na” approach that has, for better or worse, become endemic to our culture. Allow me to remind everyone that many have lost loved ones and thus cannot afford to just let go and let time run its course.

It may be a long and winding road, but, together, we’ll get to where we all want (and deserve) to be.

This article reflects the personal opinion of the author and does not reflect the official stand of the MAP.

 

Junie S. Del Mundo is Chair of the MAP Health Committee, Vice-Chair of the MAP CEO Conference Committee, and Chair and CEO of The EON Group.

map@map.org.ph

junie.delmundo@eon.com.ph

map.org.ph

Coup D’états 

NIKITABUIDA-FREEPIK

Reacting to President Rodrigo Duterte’s remark that The Hague ruling favoring the Philippines over China in the dispute over the West Philippine Sea is “just a scrap of paper to be thrown away in a waste basket,” retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio quipped, “He (President Rodrigo Duterte) honestly believes that Chinese President Xi Jinping will protect him should the military stage a coup d’état against him.”

Indeed, President Duterte revealed in May 2018 that Chinese President Xi Jinping promised to protect him from any plan to remove him from office. “The assurances of Xi Jinping were very encouraging. ‘We will not allow you to be taken out from your office,’” the president of China was supposed to have told him.

Mr. Duterte has reason to bear in mind always the possibility of elements of the Armed Forces staging a coup d’état. Two presidents — his own idol Ferdinand Marcos and the darling of the masa Joseph Estrada — were overthrown by uprisings in which elements of the military were involved.

He should be sensitive to the sentiments of the military with regard to the territorial dispute between the Philippines and China. Secretary of Defense Delfin Lorenzana’s statements and actions with regard to the presence of Chinese maritime vessels in the West Philippine Sea run counter to President Duterte’s accommodating policy towards Chinese incursions into the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. Graduates of the Philippine Military Academy have thrown their support behind Secretary Lorenzana’s firm stand against the encroachment of Chinese vessels in Philippine waters. After all, the basic mission of the military is the defense of the country against foreign aggression.

Cognizant of the crucial role the military establishment plays in the stability of his administration, Mr. Duterte has tried to win the goodwill of the military personnel from the time he ran for the presidency in 2016. He promised during the campaign to increase the pay of the uniformed and armed personnel of the government if elected.

He visits military camps regularly. In his first few months as president, he visited 14 camps. No past president had done anything close to what he has done. He spoke before scout rangers, marines, Navy men, medical staff, telling them of his campaign promise to double their pay. He fulfilled that promise in January 2018 when he authorized the increase in the base pay of soldiers and police.

He appointed more than 50 retired military generals, police directors, admirals, and colonels to the Cabinet and other agencies, including government-owned corporations. Many of them have personal ties with him. They are either from Davao or were assigned to Davao City where he was mayor for 22 years.

At present, there are eight retired generals in the Cabinet. They are: Lorenzana (Defense), Hermogenes Esperon (National Security), Roy Cimatu (Environment and Natural Resources), Eduardo Año (Interior and Local Government), Rolando Bautista (Social Welfare), Eduardo del Rosario (Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development), and Carlito Galvez (Peace Process). Secretary of Information and Communications Gregorio Honasan, the glamor boy of many coups, may have retired as colonel but only Cimatu among PMA alumni in the Cabinet graduated ahead (by one year) of him. Galvez was with Honasan in the 1987 coup attempt. There are many participants in past coup attempts among other sub-Cabinet rank appointees.

Mr. Duterte most probably learned from his study of coup attempts in the Philippines that pleasing the leaders and personnel of the Armed forces is no guarantee that there will be no coup attempts. President Marcos pampered the top brass of the Armed Forces during his reign. Still, a segment of the officer corps, mostly from the ranks of lieutenant colonels and commanders, plotted to assault Malacañang Palace and arrest Marcos.

From November 1986 to July 1987, there were six coups plotted by various elements of the Armed Forces to overthrow President Corazon Aquino. Two were nipped in the bud and four were repelled with little or no violence. But the August 1987 and December 1989 coup attempts were violent and might have succeeded were it not for the intervention of America.

In the August 1987 coup attempt, rebel soldiers attacked Malacañang Palace, seized part of Camp Aguinaldo and a building in Villamor Air Base, the government television and radio complex, and gained control of parts of the capital city. The mutinous officers, broadcasting from a seized Channel 13, said, “We expect to have the entire country under control by the end of the day.”

But US President Ronald Reagan declared from Los Angeles, “The United States condemns this attempt at extra-constitutional action. I wish to make it absolutely clear America’s unqualified support of President Aquino.” Shortly after that expression of support by Reagan, the tide of battle turned in favor of government forces.

In the December 1989 coup attempt, about 1,000 rebel soldiers from Army and Marine units fanned out across the city, hundreds marching to Camp Aguinaldo. Three rebel trainer aircraft strafed Malacañang Palace with rockets and gunfire. The rebel soldiers gained air superiority when they disabled most of the F-5s and trapped their pilots in the Philippine Air Force Base in Mactan, preventing them from disrupting the rebels’ operations.

But the tide in the fighting shifted toward the government forces after US President George H.W. Bush granted President Corazon Aquino’s request for support. Bush authorized F-4 fighter planes from the US Air Base in Clark, Angeles City to shoot down any rebel aircraft that might attack the government ground forces.

Perhaps that is the reason President Duterte has been cocky about his hold on his position. Reagan and Bush came to the support of President Aquino when she was close to being overthrown by mutineers. Xi Jinping, with whom President Duterte has a close personal relationship, expressed support for him even before any rebel soldier could clamber up the wall of the presidential palace.

But the President should not be oblivious to the way Marcos fell. Marcos and Reagan also had close personal ties. When Marcos was about to be overthrown by the people, he asked Reagan for support. US Senator Paul Laxalt, speaking for Reagan, told Marcos to “cut cleanly.”

Maybe the difference in the coup d’état attempts against Marcos and Aquino lies in the support of the people. The attempt against Marcos had been foiled but the people took up the cudgels for the rebels’ cause which was ousting a ruthless and corrupt dictator. The coup plotters in the case of Aquino didn’t have the people’s support. That is what Reagan and Bush saw.

Would the people support a coup attempt against President Duterte? Would Xi Jinping protect him regardless of how the people see the military rebellion?

 

Oscar P. Lagman, Jr. is a retired corporate executive, business consultant, and management professor. He has been a politicized citizen since his college days in the late 1950s.

Taking the risk out of blue investments

BRGFX-FREEPIK

IMAGES of dying or dead whales stuffed with plastics, sea turtles caught in fishing nets, and seagulls covered in oil underscore the perilous state of our oceans more powerfully than any statistics. More than 90% of global warming from 1971 to 2010 occurred in the oceans, resulting in massive destruction of marine life.

If treated as a nation, oceans would have been valued at an estimated $24 trillion. Millions of people depend on ocean resources. But this economy is under siege: The ongoing and frighteningly fast destruction of marine biodiversity, inextricably linked with climate change and pollution, threatens global food security, lives, and livelihoods.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has clearly shown that proactive investments can prevent or reduce the impact of crises at a fraction of the cost compared to investments required to address emergencies and finance recovery measures from a crisis after it materialized. In the same way, supporting critical blue projects now will help avoid many future costs to national economies of disfunctioning ecosystems, such as the economic collapse of fishing communities and coastal tourism, climate change, and the threat of water shortages and sea level rise to urban areas.

AVERTING A WORST-CASE SCENARIO
Those threats are emerging even now, highlighting the need for urgent action. A number of blue and green studies and frameworks prepared by development agencies and governments have identified priority steps to rescue the oceans. Unsurprisingly, the measures involve a mixture of infrastructure development, policy actions, and new regulations. ADB has developed an Ocean Financing Framework to help governments identify projects which could have a positive impact on ocean health.

Pollution reduction projects are high on this list. Nearly 8 million tons of plastics enter our oceans each year, adding to the estimated 150 million tons already in the marine environment and which is expected to triple in the next 20 years. Other toxic wastes — from the paper, tanning, construction, agriculture, and other industries — also enter the oceans as effluent through rivers and channels.

Infrastructure is the key to reduce these chronic pollution levels through projects such as wastewater treatment plants and solid waste recycling. Another crucial action is to adapt to climate change through measures such as coastal protection. Smart policy is imperative to stop pollution at source, overfishing, heedless use of plastics, and other harmful physical and financial practices. 

INNOVATIVE FINANCING AND ECOSYSTEM ACCOUNTING MAKE BLUE PROJECTS VIABLE
Finance underpins each of these approaches. The money is available. Global pension funds alone are estimated to have between $30 trillion and $50 trillion of assets under management. Commercial banks, sovereign funds, and development aid all provide a wealth of funding sources.

The problem is that the pipeline of commercially viable projects, which financial institutions would be willing to finance, is too small. Only $13 billion has been invested in blue sustainable projects over the last 10 years through philanthropy and official development assistance, and even less by the corporate sector.

Southeast Asia alone needs more than $100 billion per year from 2016 to 2030 to finance climate-resilient infrastructure. This is expected to grow due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Clearly attracting finance to blue projects is a real challenge, due to the high perceived risk and low returns for many of these initiatives, especially when the services provided by the blue ecosystems are not yet, or only partially, accounted for.

We lack widespread application of innovative financing mechanisms that allow for risk commensurate returns for investors in a sustainable blue ocean economy to catalyse private finance. Tackling this impediment is essential as constrained public fiscal resources are insufficient to meet all infrastructure financing needs.

TO ATTRACT FINANCE — BLEND, LEVERAGE, INCENTIVIZE
It’s a simple rule that finance professionals learn early in their careers: choose the right financing to manage project risks. Funds in the private and commercial sectors, for example, cannot be expected to finance projects when risks such as affordability issues, and regulatory uncertainties are beyond their control. Governments need cover some of these risks, especially those over which they can assert some control, through their own financing. In return for this support, commercial financiers should be required to achieve sustainability targets that are higher than usual targets, and achieved faster.

Financial structures that reduce the risk of financial loss in a deal, or de-risking, should be at the heart of any approach to mainstream blue finance. Governments can achieve this by blending each dollar they invest directly or indirectly via development funds with multiples of dollars from private and commercial finance sources. A factor of six should be the lowest average aim.

Scaling up the use of de-risking tools and mechanisms by governments is critical. Three tools highlighted in a recent ADB study on green finance are especially conducive to mobilizing blue finance.

The first is sovereign blue finance facilities. Concessional funds can help to either blend down the overall project financing costs, or provide investment incentives through payments linked to targets such as blue credits, explained below. Blue financing facilities at national or local government level can send strong signals to local project sponsors and global investment funds on government’s intent on developing and financing bankable blue projects. The ADB-managed ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility is an example of such a facility in the “green” space, and can be replicated at national levels.

Innovative blue capital market instruments are another financing channel. Blue bonds can be a powerful way of mobilizing funds from global markets for projects. Debt-for-nature-swaps can mobilize resources for protecting nature while reducing the debt burden of developing countries or coastal communities.

Finally, an ocean credit or blue credit is a pre-determined annual payment by a government entity to a project implementing company. The credit is linked to performance or impact indicators that a project needs to achieve, such as increased carbon sequestration. A project qualifying for blue credits could be cultivation of seaweed or expansion of a mangrove forest. ADB has established an innovative finance hub to help national and local governments develop blue credits.

The urgency and vast scale of financing needed to protect our oceans require a global coalition of financiers, government, and organizations like ADB to implement the required innovation.

Like the oceans, blue finance is largely uncharted. We need to put it on the map, before it’s too late to turn back the tide of damage to our global marine environment.

 

Ingrid Van Wees is the Vice-President for Finance and Risk Management of the Asian Development Bank.

Should we return to the office?

This is the title of the BusinessWorld Insights online forum series today, May 25. My position on this question is “Yes, we should return to the office, very soon.” I have three reasons and they are substantiated in the tables and summary of various company experiences below.

One, indefinite lockdown and stay-at-home orders which cover even many young and healthy people are anti-growth. Among the top 50 largest economies in the world in 2020, the Philippines was the 4th worst performer. And in the first quarter 2021, of the 34 of these top 50 countries which have reported their GDP as of this writing, the Philippines is again the 4th worst performer, behind the UK, Portugal, and Spain (see Table 1).

Two, among Philippine industries, the worst affected are those that involved face-to-face customer relations, like hotels and restaurants, malls and office/residential condos, and public transportation, especially provincial buses. Construction is adversely affected by the strict lockdowns and mobility restrictions like checkpoints between provincial and city boundaries (see Table 2).

Three, working from home (WFH) and remote offices cannot be a one-size-fits-all model for all industries and sectors, even for those that remote work is theoretically possible. Slow internet connection in many houses (unlike in offices) and regular power interruptions in some provinces are among the factors that make WFH not ideal for seamless work.

Being one of the speakers in the BusinessWorld Insights event, I asked some friends to share with me their company experiences, some interesting results of which I summarize below. Only Norconsult Management Services (NMS) Philippines and Protégé Communications (a PR firm) agreed to divulge their company names, the rest want to remain private. Thank you, friends.

Question: What are the advantages and disadvantages of working in a physical setup vs. working remotely?

1. NMS

Physical set up: Advantage — coordination is easier, most equipment is in the office including printers, IT servers; conversations/meeting feel more human. Disadvantage — fear of virus exposure, stress is magnified and eats into staff productivity.

WFH: Advantage — safe, time saving, no grooming/preparation to go to the office, travel. Disadvantage — breaks in-between work seem to be totally forgotten; one ends up sitting the whole day in front of the computer working or attending Zooms.

2. PROTEGE COMMUNICATIONS

WFH: Advantages — not having to wake up at 5 a.m. for a 9 a.m. meeting; many face-to-face meetings can actually be covered by an e-mail. Disadvantages — losing human contact; you cannot e-mail a firm handshake or pat an employee on a back for a job well done.

3. LAW OFFICE

WFH: Advantages — Less time wasted on the road/traffic; personal interaction and networking maintained. Disadvantages — delivery of justice at its worst; court hearings last year were down 80-90%. This year, system is slowly improving.

4. AUDITING FIRM

WFH: Advantages — safe; staff in provinces now not renting room in Makati; minimize office rent and utility; availability of staff 24/7, can respond to e-mails even at late night. Disadvantages — additional cost to cover staff communication and electricity; emotional stress, thin line between work and personal lives, they feel exhausted; power interruption happens regularly in some areas in Luzon affecting work; staff lack sense of corporate identity due to minimal attendance in corporate gathering; life span of laptops tend to be short, no aircon at home, added cost to buy new laptops.

5. ENERGY COMPANY

WFH: Advantages — communications, interactions, meetings, events, interviews, or whatever kind of connection changed to Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Streamyard, FB Live etc.; allowed for longer work hours, heightened productivity and more instantaneous results as stressful travel/traffic is gone. Everybody was accessible all the time now. Disadvantages —Less human interaction affects team dynamics; weak internet signal at home affecting productivity.

6. FOOD RETAIL CHAIN

WFH: Advantages — remote supervision of business; initially resulted in poor engagement and more lapses, could also be caused by overall stress of getting sick, fears of the stores closing down. Disadvantages — face shields and facemasks wear down employees making them mistake-prone, adjusted later. Now no one is raising fears of the virus but mostly unemployment concerns.

7. POPCORN CHAIN

Physical set up: Advantages — Set hours of physical presence; easy communication through centralized location, access to files; easy access of customers and business affiliates; easy dispatch of customer order and delivery; easy and faster delivery receipt of raw materials from suppliers. Disadvantages — traffic, time and fuel consumed; risk of virus contamination.

WFH: Advantages — flexible hours and mobility; no attire restriction; risk-free from virus; less (physical) pressure from boss and co-workers. Disadvantages — Less communication between management and co-workers; increase in house utilities bill; temptation to slack off, house/family distraction.

8. SAVINGS BANK

Physical set up: Advantages — Onsite reporting. Disadvantages — semblance of normalcy, but one year after the pandemic, reporting onsite has become abnormal; lost good people to companies with full WFH arrangements.

WFH: Advantages — allows employees to report to nearest branch; saves travel time. Disadvantages — needed more space and connectivity provisions in telecommute branches.

9. HOTEL WITH OPLAN KALINGA CONTRACT FOR RETURNING OFWS

Employees would rather have House Use (free hotel accommodation) than WFH or work remotely. Advantages — employees are more comfortable and have confidence on safety protocols in the hotel; poor connectivity at home; eliminates stress from commuting and contracting the virus.

The decision to return to the office and go back to old normal ultimately rests on the companies and individuals themselves. For those who are confident enough because they have attained natural herd immunity (especially the young), or been vaccinated, or have effective prophylaxis and early treatment drugs, government should not impose more mobility restrictions and lift the strict and indefinite lockdowns.

 

Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is the president of Minimal Government Thinkers

minimalgovernment@gmail.com

World’s supply of chips in danger unless Taiwan gets vaccines

A 12-inch wafer is seen at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s facility in Hsinchu June 15, 2010. — REUTERS/PICHI CHUANG

BACK in February, as the world was beating a path to Taiwan’s door for help to tackle a shortage of semiconductors, the health minister got into a scrap with China over COVID-19 vaccines.

Beijing, he suggested, had used political pressure to derail Taiwan’s plan to purchase five million doses directly from Germany’s BioNTech SE, rather than via a Chinese company which held the rights to develop and market the BioNTech-Pfizer, Inc. vaccine across China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying retorted that Taipei “should stop hyping up political issues under the pretext of vaccine issues.”

Three months later, Taiwan is paying the price for a lack of vaccines, with a surge in virus cases that threatens to trigger a lockdown. Having successfully sidestepped the first Covid wave, the government now faces a health emergency — only about 1% of its population is vaccinated so far — with the potential to disrupt the chip industry that dominates the local economy, and which is critical to an already-squeezed global supply.

That’s a link made by the head of Taiwan’s office in New York, who warned of “logistical problems” without access to more shots. Yet by shunning vaccines from China and warning of more chip shortages if it can’t source enough doses elsewhere, the government is giving even greater incentive to the world’s biggest economies to make investments that may erode Taiwan’s competitive edge in semiconductors over the long term.

Taiwan’s predicament illustrates its strategic yet vulnerable position at the confluence of US-China tensions. Separated by a 177-kilometer-wide strait, Taiwan is regarded as a province by Beijing and its conquest is President Xi Jinping’s key goal for historical and ideological reasons. The US is an ally of Taipei’s democratic government and a big buyer of its exports, dominated by chips produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC).

The onset late last year of chip shortages that have hobbled industries from autos to computer gaming had looked to give Taipei global leverage. TSMC is the world’s leading provider of cutting-edge semiconductors and holds 56% of the so-called foundry business of manufacturing chips designed by customers including Apple, Inc. and Qualcomm, Inc.

But Taiwan has suffered a sudden reversal of fortunes. The pandemic comes just as a drought triggers power outages, stoking economic uncertainty and a slump in what was the world’s best performing stock index in the four years to January.

What’s more, the very source of Taiwan’s recent geopolitical clout — its dominance of the market for cutting-edge chips — is under attack as governments from the US to Europe and Japan, alerted to the strategic nature of the semiconductor supply chain, seek to spur production at home. China is pumping billions into catching up after Washington imposed export controls on US chip technology.

“I think we’ve become too dependent on Taiwan and Korea, that’s the point, we need a more balanced global supply chain,” Pat Gelsinger, chief executive officer of Silicon Valley’s Intel Corp., the world’s biggest chipmaker, said in an interview. The US and Europe should act “more aggressively” to counter the “imbalance” of Asia’s lead in manufacturing semiconductors that are mostly consumed in the west, he said.

Intel is a rival and plans to challenge TSMC at the cutting edge, but Mr. Gelsinger isn’t the only voice making for uncomfortable listening in Taiwan. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said this month that while the Biden administration is working with Taipei and TSMC to address the chip shortage, it’s also looking to reduce US dependence on Taiwan. TSMC is in the process of building a new fabrication facility in the US.

Some in Washington have suggested that Taiwan is a backdoor to China by enabling tech transfers.

With the prospect of some $50 billion in government funding to build out chip making in the US and the promise of still more in Europe and South Korea, there are signs that Taiwan is starting to feel the heat.

The government is working to draft a new export control list targeting technologies with military use, to tighten curbs on exports to China and raise the penalty for violations, according to a person familiar with the issue who asked not to be named discussing policy deliberations.

Taipei has become more alert to the possibility of Chinese companies ramping up efforts to recruit Taiwanese engineers. Last month the Cabinet met to discuss how to prevent the outflow of local talent, with the Ministry of Labor instructing local job-search websites to remove ads recruiting Taiwanese citizens to work for China, particularly in the semiconductor industry.

Whether it’s enough to allay concerns in Washington may become clearer with the publication of President Joseph R.  Biden’s review of the semiconductor supply chain. The 100-day review is due to conclude on June 4. What’s already known is that there is bipartisan support to build US chip making, and Taiwan is in the cross hairs.

“Taiwan dominates semiconductor manufacturing, and one company, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, virtually controls the market,” Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who introduced the CHIPS for America Act to boost US production, said on the Senate floor this month.

The sustainability of Taiwan’s industry has also come into question after it suffered power outages this month, focusing attention on environmental factors including water shortages and uncertainty over future electricity supply for power-hungry chip plants.

Taiwan can potentially overcome the virus outbreak as well as the power and water shortages, showing its companies “can still satisfy global demand by manufacturing mostly in Taiwan without any issue,” said Arisa Liu, a researcher at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research.

In the short term that will require vaccines, most likely from Europe or the US.

According to Chunhuei Chi, a former health-policy adviser in Taiwan who is now director of the Center for Global Health at Oregon State University, “many politicians in Taiwan urged the Taiwanese government to use microchips as leverage” for vaccines.

While the government is reluctant to use that leverage explicitly, “if the US is concerned about the supply of chips from TSMC, the US would have incentives to provide Taiwan with vaccines to make sure production will not be disrupted by this outbreak,” he said. — Bloomberg

Singapore approves COVID breath test that gives immediate result

BREATHONIX.COM

A BREATH test designed to detect coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and give accurate results within a minute has been approved for use in Singapore, the National University of Singapore said in a statement.

The test, developed by NUS spin-off startup Breathonix, works much like a standard breathalyzer test that police might use to see if an erratic driver is drunk. A person blows into a one-way valve mouthpiece, and compounds in the person’s breath — think of it as a breath signature — are compared by machine learning software against the sort of breath signature that would be expected from someone who’s COVID-positive.

Singapore will screen incoming travelers from Malaysia at the Tuas Checkpoint on the western side of the island in a deployment trial of the breathalyzers, the Straits Times reported. Anyone who tests positive in the breath test would be screened in a confirmatory PCR swab test. Singapore currently screens entrants with antigen rapid tests, which would continue alongside the breathalyzers.

Accurate tests at speed could be key to helping unlock a travel sector that has slowed to a crawl during the pandemic. Even as the US and parts of Europe begin to reopen with higher viral caseloads, Singapore and other “Covid-Zero” countries in Asia have been hesitant to open borders and have cracked down harshly on any sign of flare-ups.

The Breathonix test has so far undergone three clinical trials, two in Singapore and another in Dubai. It achieved a sensitivity of 93% and specificity of 95% in one early Singapore-based pilot study that involved 180 patients. — Bloomberg

Minutes to touchdown: The moment a Belarusian dissident knew his time was up

Opposition blogger and activist Roman Protasevich, who is accused of participating in an unsanctioned protest at the Kuropaty preserve, waits before the beginning of a court hearing in Minsk, Belarus, on April 10, 2017. Picture taken April 10, 2017. -- REUTERS/Stringer
Opposition blogger and activist Roman Protasevich, who is accused of participating in an unsanctioned protest at the Kuropaty preserve, waits before the beginning of a court hearing in Minsk, Belarus April 10, 2017. — REUTERS/STRINGER

VILNIUS — Ryanair Flight 4978 had already begun its descent into the Lithuanian capital when the pilot announced that the plane would be suddenly diverting to Minsk, capital of neighboring Belarus.

There was no explanation.

But one of the passengers aboard the Boeing 737 reacted immediately, standing up from his seat, reaching into the overhead locker, pulling a laptop computer from his hand luggage and passing it to a female companion along with his mobile phone.

Belarusian dissident journalist Roman Protasevich, who is wanted in Belarus for his role in broadcasting huge opposition protests in Minsk last year, did not have much time. Minsk is less than 200 kms (125 miles) from Vilnius. The diversion would take minutes.

“When it was announced, they were going to land in Minsk, Roman stood up, opened the luggage compartment, took luggage and was trying to split things,” said a Lithuanian passenger, who gave his name only as Mantas.

“I think he made a mistake. There were plenty of people so he could give the things to me or other passengers and not the girlfriend, who was also I think arrested.”

Outside the plane — although not visible to Mantas — was a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet, on orders from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to force the plane to Minsk.

Mantas was speaking to Reuters after a day-long ordeal that began in Athens and finally ended late in the evening in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, after a stopover of more than seven hours in Minsk.

Another exhausted passenger, speaking to reporters without giving her name, said Mr. Protasevich looked “super scared.”

“I looked directly into his eyes and he was very sad,” she said.

Belarusian authorities had diverted the flight as it passed over the country because of a suspected bomb alert, state news agency BelTA said. The alert later turned out to be false.

‘STANDING ALONE’
Mr. Protasevich, 26 was immediately separated on arrival in Minsk and checks of luggage using sniffer dogs turned up nothing.

“We saw that Roman was stopped due to some things in the luggage,” Mr. Mantas said, adding that the other passengers also had their luggage checked and were taken by bus to the terminal where they spent several hours waiting to reboard the plane.

“We saw from the window that Roman is standing alone, and one policeman with dog was trying to find something (in his luggage).”

Another passenger, who also did not give his name, told Lithuanian media that Mr. Protasevich had identified himself to Belarusian security officials on arrival. “I saw how his passport was taken away. He took off his mask and said: ‘I’m so-and-so and I’m the reason why all this is going on.’”

The European Union (EU) called for Mr. Protasevich’s immediate release, with the head of the EU’s executive European Commission and the Polish prime minister describing the incident as a hijacking.

The other passengers looked weary on arrival in Vilnius, with Mr. Mantas saying they had spent hours in queues for luggage and passport checks in Minsk before being allowed into a lounge to await takeoff.

He said he could not be sure if Mr. Protasevich’s companion, who took the laptop and phone, had also been detained in Minsk, but there appeared to be more empty seats on the final Minsk-Vilnius journey than when it took off from Athens.

“It means that more than one person was (taken) out of the plane — but (it’s) difficult to say exactly.”

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda told a news conference late on Sunday that Mr. Protasevich’s female companion had also not re-embarked the flight from Minsk to Vilnius. — Reuters

No one’s safe anymore: Japan’s Osaka city crumples under COVID-19 onslaught

Osaka skyline by Zairon/CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons

OSAKA — Hospitals in Japan’s second largest city of Osaka are buckling under a huge wave of new coronavirus infections, running out of beds and ventilators as exhausted doctors warn of a “system collapse,” and advise against holding the Olympics this summer. 

Japan’s western region home to 9 million people is suffering the brunt of the fourth wave of the pandemic, accounting for a third of the nation’s death toll in May, although it constitutes just 7% of its population. 

The speed at which Osaka’s healthcare system was overwhelmed underscores the challenges of hosting a major global sports event in two months’ time, particularly as only about half of Japan’s medical staff have completed inoculations. 

“Simply put, this is a collapse of the medical system,” said Yuji Tohda, the director of Kindai University Hospital in Osaka. “The highly infectious British variant and slipping alertness have led to this explosive growth in the number of patients.” 

Japan has avoided the large infections suffered by other nations, but the fourth pandemic wave took Osaka prefecture by storm, with 3,849 new positive tests in the week to Thursday. 

That represents a more than fivefold jump over the corresponding period three months ago. 

Just 14% of the prefecture’s 13,770 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients have been hospitalized, leaving the majority to fend for themselves. Tokyo’s latest hospitalization rate, in comparison, is 37%. 

A government advisory panel sees rates of less than 25% as a trigger to consider imposition of a state of emergency. 

By Thursday, 96% of the 348 hospital beds Osaka reserves for serious virus cases were in use. Since March, 17 people have died from the disease outside the prefecture’s hospitals, officials said this month. 

The variant can make even young people very sick quickly, and once seriously ill, patients find it tough to make a recovery, said Toshiaki Minami, director of the Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University Hospital (OMPUH). 

“I believe that until now many young people thought they were invincible. But that can’t be the case this time around. Everyone is equally bearing the risk.” 

BREAKING POINT
Dr. Minami said a supplier recently told him that stocks of propofol, a key drug used to sedate intubated patients, are running very low, while Tohda’s hospital is running short of the ventilators vital for severely ill COVID-19 patients. 

Caring for critically ill patients in the face of infection risk has taken a serious toll on staff, said Satsuki Nakayama, the head of the nursing department at OMPUH. 

“I’ve got some intensive care unit (ICU) staff saying they have reached a breaking point,” she added. “I need to think of personnel change to bring in people from other hospital wings.” 

About 500 doctors and 950 nurses work at OMPUH, which manages 832 beds. Ten of its 16 ICU beds have been dedicated to virus patients. Twenty of the roughly 140 serious patients taken in by the hospital died in the ICU. 

Yasunori Komatsu, who heads a union of regional government employees, said conditions were dire as well for public health nurses at local health centers, who liaison between patients and medical institutions. 

“Some of them are racking up 100, 150, 200 hours of overtime, and that has been going on for a year now … when on duty, they sometimes go home at one or two in the morning, and go to bed only to be awakened by a phone call at three or four.” 

Medical professionals with firsthand experience of Osaka’s struggle with the pandemic take a negative view on holding the Tokyo Games, set to run from July 23 to August 8. 

“The Olympics should be stopped, because we already have failed to stop the flow of new variants from England, and next might be an inflow of Indian variants,” said Akira Takasu, the head of emergency medicine at OMPUH. 

He was referring to a variant first found in India that the World Health Organization (WHO) designated as being of concern after initial studies showed it spread more easily. 

“In the Olympics, 70,000 or 80,000 athletes and the people will come to this country from around the world. This may be a trigger for another disaster in the summer.” — Kiyoshi Takenaka/Reuters 

Dragonpay and Villarica Pawnshop partners up for more convenient transactions

 

Dragonpay, one of the Philippines’ leading payment processors, is proud and excited to announce its partnership with Villarica Pawnshop that will surely benefit its users in terms of convenience and hassle-free transactions. Dragonpay recently added Villarica to its growing portfolio of payout partners, alongside other disbursement channels such as GCash, LBC, and several banks, among others.

Villarica Pawnshop began as a single proprietorship established by the late Paz R. Villarica, a jeweler from Meycauayan, Bulacan. As years go by, Villarica Pawnshop, Inc. decided to established branches in different parts of Metro Manila to maintain its competitiveness and market share in the industry with other leading pawnshops.

While most of its branches are located within the Metro Manila area, it has established its business presence in other provinces such as Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite, and other parts of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Since its establishment, Villaricanow owns 561 branches nationwide.

Through this partnership between Dragonpay and Villarica, recipients of cash from merchants under Dragonpay’s mass payout or cash disbursement service can now receive money at any Villarica branch nationwide.

Dragonpay believes that Villarica will increase its reach through Villarica’s branches spread throughout the Philippines (80% Luzon, 20% Visayas, and Mindanao).

“At Dragonpay, we are committed to delivering a convenient and secure payment solution to both our customers and partner merchants. Villarica being one of the country’s leading pawnshops, will help us expand our reach in the country and provide a safe venue where our customers can do their payout transactions,” shares Dragonpay CEO Robertson “Dick” Chiang.

To know more about Dragonpay, please visit www.dragonpay.ph.

 

Belarus forces airliner to land and arrests opponent, sparking US and European outrage

Opposition blogger and activist Roman Protasevich, who is accused of participating in an unsanctioned protest at the Kuropaty preserve, waits before the beginning of a court hearing in Minsk, Belarus, on April 10, 2017. Picture taken April 10, 2017. -- REUTERS/Stringer

MOSCOW — Belarusian authorities scrambled a fighter jet and flagged what turned out to be a false bomb alert to force a Ryanair plane to land on Sunday and then detained an opposition-minded journalist who was on board, drawing condemnation from Europe and the United States. 

In what was described by some EU leaders as a hijacking, the passenger plane flying from Athens to Lithuania was suddenly diverted to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, escorted there by a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet. On its landing, authorities took journalist Roman Protasevich into custody. 

Mr. Protasevich had his head in his hands and was shaking when he realized the flight was headed for Minsk, Lithuania’s Delfi news outlet said, quoting a passenger. Later, as he was led away, according to the report, he remarked: “I’ll get the death penalty here.” Reuters could not verify the report. 

The 26-year-old journalist worked for Poland-based online news service NEXTA, which broadcast footage of mass protests against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko last year via the Telegram messenger app at a time when it was hard for foreign media to do so. 

Mr. Protasevich who now works for a different Telegram channel called Belamova, is wanted in Belarus on extremism charges and stands accused of organizing mass riots and of inciting social hatred, allegations he denies. 

Data from the flightradar24.com website showed the plane was diverted just two minutes before it was due to cross into Lithuanian airspace. After seven hours on the ground, the plane took off and finally landed in Vilnius where Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte was waiting to meet the passengers. 

As European officials threatened new sanctions on Belarus, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the forced landing and arrest a “shocking act,” demanded Mr. Protasevich’s immediate release, and said President Joseph R. Biden, Jr’s administration was “coordinating with our partners on next steps.” 

EU member state Lithuania, where Mr. Protasevich is based, urged the European Union and NATO to respond. 

Ursula von der Leyen, head of the EU’s executive European Commission, said Mr. Protasevich must be released immediately and that those responsible for “the Ryanair hijacking must be sanctioned,” adding EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Monday would discuss what action to take. 

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in a tweet that the incident was serious and dangerous and required an international investigation. 

Simon Coveney, foreign minister of Ireland, where Ryanair is based, said on Twitter: “EU inaction or indecision will be taken as weakness by Belarus.” 

Lithuania’s foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, said he discussed the Ryanair plane diversion with US Assistant Secretary of State Philip Reeker, urging a strong response from the West. 

The United States along with the EU, Britain and Canada have already imposed asset freezes and travel bans on almost 90 Belarusian officials, including Lukashenko, following an August election that opponents and the West say was a sham. 

‘ACT OF PIRACY’
US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez issued a statement with the heads of seven European parliamentary foreign affairs panels denouncing the forced landing as “an act of piracy.” They called for a ban on all overflights of Belarus, including to and from the country, and for NATO and EU states to impose sanctions and suspend Belarus’ “ability to use Interpol.” 

Mr. Blinken demanded a “full investigation” of an action he said endangered the lives of the passengers, including US citizens. 

“Given indications the forced landing was based on false pretenses, we support the earliest possible meeting of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization to review these events,” he said in a statement. 

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who like Mr. Protasevich now operates from Lithuania, called on the UN aviation agency, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), to kick Belarus out. 

ICAO said it was “strongly concerned” over the incident, which might have breached the Chicago Convention underpinning civil aviation. Global airline industry body International Air Transport Association (IATA) also called for a full investigation. 

The incident is certain to worsen already dire relations between the West and Belarus, which has been tightly controlled since 1994 by Mr. Lukashenko. 

Opponents accuse him of rigging a presidential election in his own favor last year and of then cracking down violently on the opposition. He denies electoral fraud. 

Ryanair said in a statement that the plane’s crew was notified by Belarus of a potential security threat on board and was instructed to divert to the nearest airport, Minsk. 

The plane landed safely, passengers were offloaded, security checks were made by local authorities and the aircraft later resumed its journey to Vilnius, Ryanair said. 

One of the passengers, speaking to Reuters after arriving at Vilnius airport, said neither the pilot nor the crew gave a full explanation for the sudden diversion to Minsk, but Mr. Protasevich reacted quickly to the news, standing up from his seat. 

The Lithuanian passenger, who gave his name only as Mantas, said Mr. Protasevich opened an overhead locker, pulled out a laptop computer and a phone and gave them to a female companion. On landing, Mr. Protasevich was immediately separated, Mantas said. 

Belarusian officials with sniffer dogs searched the luggage of each passenger, including Mr. Protasevich, but appeared to find nothing. “It looked fake,” Mantas said of the bomb-detection operation. 

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda told a news conference late on Sunday that Mr. Protasevich’s female companion had also not re-embarked on the flight from Minsk to Vilnius. 

ON LUKASHENKO’S ORDERS
Belarusian news agency BelTA reported that Lukashenko had personally ordered the warplane to escort the Ryanair plane to Minsk. No explosives were found, it said. 

Ben Hodges, former commander of US Army forces in Europe, said the air defenses of Belarus were closely integrated with those of Russia. “If you had anything happening in the Belarus airspace, it would be impossible for the Kremlin — or at least Russian military forces — not to know about it,” he said. 

Mr. Nauseda urged “NATO and EU allies to immediately react to the threat posed to international civil aviation by the Belarus regime.” 

Lithuanian presidential adviser Asta Skaisgiryte said the operation to force the plane carrying around 170 people from 12 countries to land seemed to be pre-planned. 

The Belarusian department for organized crime control reported that Mr. Protasevich had been detained, before deleting the statement from its Telegram channel. 

About 35,000 people have been detained in Belarus since August, human rights groups say. Dozens have received jail terms. — Andrey Ostroukh and Andrius Sytas/Reuters 

 

Wuhan lab staff sought hospital care before COVID-19 outbreak disclosed — WSJ

COMPUTER-GENERATED representation of COVID-19 virions via Felipe Esquivel Reed / CC BY-SA

WASHINGTON — Three researchers from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care in November 2019, months before China disclosed the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a previously undisclosed US intelligence report. 

The newspaper said the report — which provides fresh details on the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illnesses, and their hospital visits — may add weight to calls for a broader probe of whether the COVID-19 virus could have escaped from the laboratory. 

The report came on the eve of a meeting of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) decision-making body, which is expected to discuss the next phase of an investigation into the origins of COVID-19. 

A National Security Council spokeswoman had no comment on the Journal’s report but said the Biden administration continued to have “serious questions about the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, including its origins within the Peoples Republic of China.” 

She said the US government was working with the WHO and other member states to support an expert-driven evaluation of the pandemic’s origins “that is free from interference or politicization.” 

“We’re not going to make pronouncements that prejudge an ongoing WHO study into the source of SARS-CoV-2, but we’ve been clear that sound and technically credible theories should be thoroughly evaluated by international experts,” she said. 

The Journal said current and former officials familiar with the intelligence about the lab researchers expressed a range of views about the strength of the report’s supporting evidence, with one unnamed person saying it needed “further investigation and additional corroboration.” 

The United States, Norway, Canada, Britain and other countries in March expressed concerns about the WHO-led COVID-19 origins study, and called for further investigation and full access to all pertinent human, animal and other data about the early stages of the outbreak. 

Washington is keen to ensure greater cooperation and transparency by China, according to a source familiar with the effort. 

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday. 

On Sunday, China’s foreign ministry noted that a WHO-led team had concluded a lab leak was extremely unlikely after a visit in February to the virology institute. “The US continues to hype the lab leak theory,” the ministry said in response to a request for comment by the Journal. “Is it actually concerned about tracing the source or trying to divert attention?” 

The Trump administration had said it suspected the virus may have escaped from a Chinese lab, which Beijing denies. 

A State Department fact sheet released near the end of the Trump administration had said “the US government has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses.” It did not say how many researchers. 

China refused to give raw data on early COVID-19 cases to the WHO-led team probing the origins of the pandemic, according to one of the team’s investigators, Reuters reported in February, potentially complicating efforts to understand how the outbreak began. — Reuters 

Taiwan slams WHO’s ‘indifference’ after failing to get into key meeting

NATANAELGINTING-FREEPIK

TAIPEI — Taiwan’s government slammed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) “indifference” to the health rights of Taiwanese people and for capitulating to China on Monday after failing to get invited to a meeting of its decision–making body. 

Taiwan is excluded from most global organizations such as the WHO because of the objections of China, which considers the island one of its provinces not a country. 

Taiwan, with the strong backing of major Western powers, had been lobbying for access to the WHO’s World Health Assembly, which opens on Monday, as an observer. 

In a joint statement by Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and Health Minister Chen Shih-chung, Taiwan’s government said that they would continue to seek participation. 

“As a professional international health body, the World Health Organization (WHO) should serve the health and welfare of all humanity and not capitulate to the political interests of a certain member,” Mr. Chen said, referring to China. 

Mr. Wu expressed regret at the “WHO Secretariat’s continued indifference to the health rights of Taiwan’s 23.5 million people.” 

China says Taiwan can only take part if it accepts it is part of “one China,” which Taipei’s government will not do, and that only Beijing has a right to speak for Taiwan on the international stage and Taiwan has in any case been given the access it needs during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. 

Taiwan’s statement said China was falsely claiming that appropriate arrangements have been made for Taiwan’s WHO participation, adding that only the island’s democratically elected government can speak for its people. 

Taiwan urges the WHO to “maintain a professional and neutral stance, reject China’s political interference, and allow Taiwan to join WHO meetings, mechanisms, and activities in order to protect the welfare of humanity and jointly combat disease.” 

While the WHO cooperates with Taiwan’s technical experts on COVID-19, it is up to member states whether to invite Taiwan to observe the WHO meeting, the WHO’s principal legal officer Steve Solomon said last week. — Reuters 

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