Thread by @WilliamYang120

About #COVID19 rapid test and medication - #Taiwan's Vice President and renown epistemologist Dr. Chen Chien-Jen said in an interview with CNA that Taiwan is expected to mass-produce the 15 minute rapid test for #COVID19 in three months. cna.com.tw/news/firstnews…

Additionally, the team at #Taiwan's Academic Sinica also continues to develop medication for #COVID19, which Chen thinks could be released to the market in six months.

Chen said in the interview that if #SARSCoV2 becomes like the seasonal flu in the future, then rapid test kits, antiviral medication and vaccine will become really important in the world's fight against #COVID19.

#Taiwan's government has put together a team to focus on accelerating the development of these crucial tools. To commercialize these research achievements, #Taiwan needs to work with pharmaceutical companies both in Taiwan and abroad.

Since there aren't many #COVID19 cases in #Taiwan at the moment, it will be more difficult for Taiwan to validate the accuracy of the rapid test kit. This means Taiwan will need more international cooperation on this front.

Taiwan has sign cooperation agreement with the US, and it covers validating the rapid test kit, antiviral medications, anti-pandemic technologies and academic exchanges. The EU is also very interested in the rapid test kits that #Taiwan is developing.

Even though #Taiwan has adopted a proactive approach to detect and prevent the spread of #COVID19, if Taiwan starts to have community infection, frontline medical professionals will need rapid test kits to help diagnose patients.

Chen hopes that once #Taiwan rolls out the rapid test kits, the antiviral medication can be applied to diagnosed patients immediately. So far Taiwan has started clinical experiment for the medication, and Chen predicts that it will take up to 6 months for them to hit the market.

As for the possible #COVID19 vaccine, it is still during the animal testing stage, so it will need another 12 to 18 months for the vaccine to hit the market.

One thing to always keep in mind is that #Taiwan achieved all this without being part of the @WHO and despite repeated support from multiple countries for #Taiwan to be included into the global health organization, it is still blocked from rejoining the organization due to ...

... objection from #China. On top of that, there have been media reports suggesting that the chief of WHO, @DrTedros, has been blaming criticisms against him on "online trolls from #Taiwan."

@Laurie_Garrett @HelenBranswell @kakape