Needling the authorities
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Is it that hard to ask the authorities to closely control and monitor the production and inoculation of vaccines?
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health acknowledged that the Shanxi provincial disease control and prevention center violated rules by sticking labels onto vaccines. But admitting a mistake is still not enough to unravel the mystery of why the Shanxi center did what they did. More effort is needed to reestablish public confidence in the quality of vaccines.
Ministry officials, at a press conference, confirmed that of the 15 cases of sick children investigated by its experts, only three have something to do with the vaccines they were inoculated with. Ministry officials explicitly promised that all vaccines are safe to use.
We really hope that ministry officials are not withholding anything from us and that what they are saying is the truth.
Still, more needs to be done to confirm whether a report that some 200 children are victims of problematic vaccines in Shanxi province is true. The public also needs to know the accuracy of a whistleblower's tipoff that the Shanxi provincial disease control and prevention center trusted a private company with transporting and managing the vaccines to make a profit.
Ministry officials said that an investigation is underway and promised that anyone who violated any rules or laws will be dealt with according to the law.
Yet, it's been almost three years since the tipster reported the problem using his or her real name to the authorities. And the reporter has interviewed hundreds of people in seven months. Why isn't the Ministry of Health consulting the reporter and the whistleblower in its investigation?
We hope that the ministry's investigations will prove the reporter and tipster wrong.
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