Legislators want heads to roll over bird flu poll
They say the methodology used by a university survey team misled the public
A Polytechnic University team of pollsters should be fired for producing misleading public opinion polls on the government's policy on bird flu, legislators said yesterday.
The university's department of applied social sciences was commissioned by the Central Policy Unit on behalf of the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau to conduct three telephone opinion polls on prevention of human infection.
The polls were part of the three-month consultation exercise, which ended in July last year and attracted 10,000 submissions. A report on the consultation exercise was released yesterday to the Legco panel on food safety and environmental hygiene.
'The report on opinion polls is rather disappointing. You said you commissioned people to do the polls. You should fire those pollsters,' said health services sector legislator Joseph Lee Kok-long, who is also assistant professor of nursing at Open University. 'As a teacher, with this kind of survey report I would fail the students. The methodology is very confusing.'
He also questioned how the government arrived at the option of regional slaughterhouses, which was not borne out by the opinion polls. 'Is it that the bureau has the regional slaughtering option in mind?' he said.
Wong Kwok-hing, of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong, asked why the government ignored the plight of poultry workers facing a grim future. 'It is simply inhuman,' he said.
Liberal Party member Tommy Cheung Yu-yan, who represents the catering sector, criticised the absence of consultation with the catering industry.
The DAB's Wong Yung-kan, who represents agriculture and fisheries, attacked the government for counting housewives and shoppers who visited markets as members of the trade, thereby giving a skewed opinion. 'They are members of the public patronising the markets,' he said.
The Federation of Trade Union's Chan Yuen-han said the government should set out a timetable for the implementation of its preferred option, instead of letting the trade guess its intention.
Supporters of centralised slaughtering criticised the government for 'back-tracking' from previous plans.
Medical sector legislator Kwok Ka-ki said: 'Bird flu has affected Hong Kong. Bird flu is very powerful. If there is bird flu, Hong Kong's economy will be affected.'
Deputy Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Eddy Chan Yuk-tak said: 'We hope to make a policy decision as soon as possible.'
He said a pilot regional slaughter hub was being prepared at the Food Produce Market in Western, which has been vacant since central slaughtering of ducks and geese began after a bird flu outbreak. Out of 814 poultry stalls, 220 had applied to surrender their licences.
