I could not agree more with the column “ Vaccination is the means, don’t forget the end goal of making Hong Kong Covid-safe for the economy to take off ” (April 18). Here is my prediction. It is mission impossible within the next year for Hong Kong to reduce new Covid-19 infections to a perpetual zero and to open our borders to the world. Hong Kong’s Covid-19 tracking and tracing, while exemplary, is at best a stopgap measure. It leaves the population unprotected and highly vulnerable because no herd immunity develops. But vaccines offer a sea change to this picture. Widespread vaccine uptake is the only way forward. Without it, we are doomed to never-ending cycles of testing, tracing, quarantine, lockdowns and the closing of borders. It is free and available for Hong Kong people (unlike in some other parts of the world). And the safety of taking a vaccine compared with contracting Covid-19, which has claimed more than 3 million lives , is of an almost unthinkable order of magnitude. Hundreds of millions of vaccine doses have been given worldwide with spectacularly protective effect. I am practising the public health measures that I preach. While recognising the need to maintain physical distancing, wearing a mask and other measures, I feel relieved and safer after my two jabs plus two weeks. My thanks to the Hong Kong government. Dr Judith Mackay, Clear Water Bay Offer jab to returning Hongkongers at airport I would like to get vaccinated as soon as possible, but sadly had to depart Hong Kong for a business trip just before Covid-19 vaccines became generally available in Hong Kong. I am not resident in my business trip location so have zero priority for getting vaccinated while abroad. In early May, I will return to Hong Kong to face my quarantine and wonder why the government does not make the first shot of the vaccine available at the airport for inbound Hong Kong residents? The ground transport lounge at the airport is already a community vaccination centre so it should not be that difficult to offer it to those of us who want it while we wait in the airport for our Covid-19 test result and the transport to our quarantine hotel. We could schedule the second shot for immediately after we come out of quarantine and re-emerge as safely vaccinated members of society much sooner this way. Keith Noyes, Clear Water Bay