Letters | Hong Kong coronavirus fourth wave: put health and welfare first, not political point-scoring

Hongkongers will soon be inundated with media reports about countries that have struck deals with pharmaceutical companies in rolling out their Covid-19 vaccination strategies (“Trudeau says Canada to get Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine this month”, December 8). Unfortunately, there is no reliable guidance from the Department of Health as to when we can expect Hong Kong’s vaccination strategy to commence, let alone if a vaccine supply has even been secured.

Our secretary for health, Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee, recently advised vaccine supplies were expected sometime next year which, amid the horrors of a global pandemic, is less than reassuring. The alternative timeline from Chinese University professor and government pandemic adviser David Hui Shu-cheong is no better.

He reckons, “If we are lucky, by the third quarter of next year we will start seeing the first batches of vaccines arrive.” That is at least nine months from now, while Professor Hui projects a high chance for all Hongkongers to be vaccinated by sometime in 2022 (“Christmas Covid-19 rush feared, full Hong Kong vaccine roll-out by 2022 ‘if lucky’”, December 6).

There is so much more to the Covid-19 vaccine than just an injection to ward off a virus. Mass vaccination offers the lifeline Hong Kong so desperately needs, whether it is enabling the health care sector to resume routine treatments, letting the city’s hospitality sector rehire the thousands of workers it has laid off or allowing the travel sector to welcome back foreign visitors.

As 2020 draws to a close, Hong Kong’s economy is in a horribly precarious state, with our government’s reputation close to an all-time low. Hongkongers, other than a few dancing tai-tais, have done all they can to insulate Hong Kong from the worst ravages of Covid-19.