Letters | Hong Kong Covid vaccines: don’t sell, do global duty and just donate

Name: ‘Nepal will be the weakest link’ without Covid-19 vaccines, says public health scientist
Uploaded: 2021-05-28T23:00:23.000Z
Duration: 6 min 11 s
Description: ‘Nepal will be the weakest link’ without Covid-19 vaccines, says public health scientist

The idea that one of the richest territories on earth should be charging the likes of Nepal to take on the short-dated vaccines that it has not been able to use seems really quite egregious

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BioNTech vaccines being transported to a warehouse in Hong Kong on February 27. Millions of doses are approaching expiry amid persistently poor uptake in the city. Photo: AFP

Letters

Published: 7:00am, 29 May 2021Updated: 7:00am, 29 May 2021

Hong Kong’s difficulties in rolling out an effective vaccine programme are well known. The ensuing issue of what to do with any possible leftover doses has inevitably come to attention. In particular, several ideas were explored in the South China Morning Post article “Coronavirus: health experts suggest selling Hong Kong’s unused vaccine shots or pausing fresh supplies as expiry date looms” (May 26).

In the article, William Chui Chun-ming, president of the Society for Hospital Pharmacists, said the city faced three choices: to incinerate the leftover doses, to donate them or to sell them on to other countries.

His personal preference was to sell them to coronavirus-stricken countries in the region, such as India, Pakistan, Nepal or the Philippines. He said: “Those countries are short of jabs but not money. We can get some cash back to purchase second-generation vaccines when they become available in the future.”

We should always look to secure the best value and savings for the public purse. But, more than ever, we also need to work together as a global community to fight this infection and move on to a better, safer future for all.

Given this, the idea that Hong Kong, one of the richest territories on earth, should be charging Nepal, still classified by the United Nations as among the least developed countries in the world, to take on the short-dated vaccines we have not been able to use seems really quite egregious.

06:11

‘Nepal will be the weakest link’ without Covid-19 vaccines, says public health scientist

In an ideal world, of course, we would not have these precious vaccines going unused in the first place. However, under the circumstances in which we find ourselves, the least we can do is to make the best of a bad situation and step up as a good global citizen.