Letters | Forget zero Covid, let Hong Kong learn to live with it

A Covid-free Hong Kong is a Utopian dream. The government should just make vaccination mandatory, so life can go on

Reading Time:2 minutes

Visitors wearing masks take in the views from the Hong Kong Peak Tram in November 2020. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:30am, 2 Jul 2021Updated: 3:42pm, 3 Jul 2021

The aim of having a Covid-free Hong Kong is just not, nor will it ever be, possible.

We seem to have so many “experts” here in Hong Kong that advise the government on how to achieve this Utopian dream of a Covid-free Hong Kong and the government seems happy to follow the advice.

Unfortunately some of the basics seem to have largely been forgotten. We will never be 100 per cent free of Covid in the near term. What we have to do is adjust and accept that fact (“‘Covid-19 may never go away’: Singapore looks to live with virus as endemic”, June 24).

There is one and only one solution to death by Covid – vaccination. We still have a pathetically low vaccination rate here in Hong Kong. I’m not entirely sure why.

We could postulate that perhaps the people of Hong Kong are not well-educated about the risks, hence the reluctance to be vaccinated, but I don’t think that would be the real reason.

Perhaps it is a form of political defiance against the government and a form of retribution for the imposition of the national security law last year. If that is the case, and it would not surprise me if it was, then the government would be left with no choice other than to make Covid vaccinations mandatory for everyone in Hong Kong.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x