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Letters | Hong Kong coronavirus: don’t bin vaccines when others are dying for them

  • It is criminal to let vaccines expire when the rest of the world has a massive shortage
  • If the people of Hong Kong are so blinkered they do not want life-saving vaccines, then donate these shots to countries that will use them

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Signs announcing that vaccines are out of stock are seen at the entrance gate of a Covid-19 coronavirus vaccination centre, closed for three days due to shortage of supplies, in India’s commercial capital of Mumbai on April 30. Photo: AFP

Our government has done a sterling job of keeping Covid-19 at bay in Hong Kong. It has been so successful that most people naively think they do not need the protection offered by any of the vaccines available.

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Are people in Hong Kong so short-sighted they think Covid-19 will magically disappear soon and therefore there is no need to be vaccinated? Do they not want to travel in the foreseeable future? Do they want Hong Kong to remain a closed shop?
If Hong Kong had suffered, say, 10,000 deaths from the coronavirus, hospitals were full to overflowing, the city had insufficient ventilators and people continued to die, would the people of Hong Kong still refuse to have the vaccinations? I doubt it.
Instead, there would be long queues for the vaccine. We would probably be close to 70 per cent vaccinated by now.
We are now in a situation where we have about 2 million vaccines doses expiring within months. People of Hong Kong, please decide and decide quickly if you want to be vaccinated or not. It is criminal to let these vaccines expire when the rest of the world has a massive shortage of them and people elsewhere do want to get vaccinated.

02:11

India passes 300,000 coronavirus deaths as mass graves found along Ganges

India passes 300,000 coronavirus deaths as mass graves found along Ganges

To the government of Hong Kong – if the people of Hong Kong are so blinkered they don’t wish to avail themselves of life-saving vaccines, then please donate these shots to a country and people who will use them. There are many countries that would welcome the gift of 2 million vaccine doses. Don’t let the vaccines expire.

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