Letters | A two-step plan to drag Hong Kong out of its Covid-19 rut
- Given the billions the government is spending on consumption vouchers and free airline tickets, it can afford to pay seniors to get triple-vaccinated, which could save their lives
- After doing so, it should scrap all other restrictions, thus safeguarding the economy and people’s sanity
I’m over 70 and triple vaccinated. I’ve been thinking about getting another Covid-19 vaccination dose, but wanted some more information. So I went to the government website, as we are adjured to do. I waded through its pabulum and struggled to find information about a fourth dose, Omicron and how the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine works against Omicron.
Outside the government website, I found a study on the effectiveness of vaccines against Delta and Omicron infections and severe outcomes. The study, which was published in the American Medical Association’s JAMA Network Open journal, covered over 134,000 adults in Canada.
It found that two vaccine doses were not effective against Omicron, especially after 180 days. The third dose was highly effective against severe outcomes. However, the effectiveness of vaccines does wane over time.
This led me to decide to get my fourth jab, because my third was 11 months ago. I’m concerned not so much with not getting Omicron, as with not dying from it.
The government website was of zero help in making up my mind. The website is huge and unwieldy. Information on Omicron, and the third and fourth vaccine doses, ought to be upfront and obvious.