The Kuomintang(KMT) held a press conference this morning (11th), “1922 does not have public power? Everyone misunderstood Chen Shih-Chung again?” Deputy Secretary-General and Director of the Culture and Communication Committee Wang Yumin, Vice Chairman Wang Hongwei, and Legislator Hong Mengkai attended and questioned Minister of Health and Welfare and Central Epidemic Command Center Commander (CECC) Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), minister Chen claimed that the 1922 epidemic prevention line is an epidemic notification and consulting service center, and it doesn’t have public power. The KMT proposed “the Ministry of Health and Welfare Propaganda 1922 Press Release last year”, “The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s promotional video”, “113 Maternity and Child Protection Line and 1999 Public Service Line”, “National Army Support 1922 Line”, etc., to prove that the 1922 line has the nature of public power. In order to clear the responsibility and destroy the people’s sense of trust in the 1922 special line and the people infected with the epidemic cannot get immediate help, it’s a pity that the time to seek medical treatment is delayed and Minister Chen should solemnly apologize to the publics, and publish the relevant SOP of the 1922 special line and immediately review the problems in the improvement process. The KMT said that every time the Ministry of Health and Welfare has carried out a nationwide epidemic prevention video on TV channels, it will mention that “if there is an emergency medical need for COVID-19, please call the emergency epidemic prevention hotline 1922” since the outbreak of the epidemic. The dedicated line can help to deal with epidemic prevention and medical needs, but now, Chen’s sentence “1922 has no public power” has broken people’s line of confidence. It turned out that calling 1922 for help was “consultation” without the support of public power. Power to help? Are the publicity advertisements of the Ministry of Health and Welfare all spreading “false information”? In the future, how can people trust the 1922 hotline to help solve problems in epidemic prevention and medical treatment?
The KMT again cited the 113 Maternity and Child Protection Line and the 1999 Public Service Line as examples to point out that they are also entrusted with private operations, but “if it is an emergency, the 113 commissioner will immediately notify the 110 police unit to deal with it on the spot, and if necessary, social workers will be invited to join us. In addition, the 1999 hotlines of various local governments are also outsourced through tenders, but most people need services or report matters that involve public power. After receiving the case, the 1999 hotline has ignored it without public power, The KMT also pointed out that the Ministry of National Defense’s report on the “Current Status of the National Army’s Epidemic Prevention Work” at the end of last month specifically pointed out that “from May 6, the reserve and various combat zones will support the “1922 special line” on-duty manpower until May 23, a total of 5,778 people have been supported.” KMT questioned, if the 1922 special line does not have public power, it is only a private unit, and if the manpower is insufficient, it should find its own way, why can it use the Army to support it? Are there any private manufacturers that have the ability to get the cooperation from the Army?
At the same time, KMT pointed out that because of a recent case, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen, in order to clear the responsibility and pass the blame to the New Taipei City government, made the above statement. Consequently, the 1922 epidemic prevention line collapsed overnight. Just like the case of the deceased being cremated within 24 hours, it turned out that the command center never required cremation within 24 hours, is this a self-righteous perception? As for the 1922 epidemic prevention line, everyone misunderstood Chen, it turned out that 1922 can only be consulted, and there is no public power to help solve epidemic prevention problems. In the past two years, the have been various epidemic prevention policies of the Central Epidemic Command Center. Will there be more “misunderstandings” in the future? Obviously, minister Chen has no intention of preventing the epidemic, and only focuses on creating “misunderstandings” in order to shirk his responsibilities, then how can the health and safety of the people be guaranteed?
The KMT calls on the 1922 special line for epidemic prevention to be an important platform for people to seek help during the epidemic prevention period. Since the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s press release claims that the 1922 special line has the functions of “relevant response actions” and “evacuation”, the relevant SOP procedures should be immediately announced to let the public know what went wrong during the review? KMT also asked Chen to stop evading the 1922 responsibilities that are of the nature of public power, to review the problems in the improvement process as soon as possible, so that the publics can get immediate assistance during the epidemic, solve problems reliably, and ride out the epidemic together with peace of mind.
