Pharmacy workers key to societal resilienceBy Huang Jin-shun 黃金舜The issue of societal resilience has become increasingly prevalent in the past few years, particularly as international political and economic conditions have been changing at a rapid pace. The government and civilians are indispensable parts of the response, as only through effective public-private collaboration can the goal of societal resilience be achieved. The pandemic was a major test of societal resilience for all nations. However, beyond mutual trust, resilience and the collective cooperation of Taiwanese, the success was also informed by the painful lessons learned from the SARS outbreak of 2003. At the end of 2024, I proposed policies such as encouraging pharmacists to obtain emergency medical technician certification and relaxing regulations so that trained pharmacists could be classified as emergency medical responders under the Emergency Medical Services Act (緊急醫療救護法).

Source: Taipei Times January 10, 2026 16:10 UTC