Opinion | Hong Kong people’s fears over coronavirus vaccine can be calmed using facts and scientific data

Name: Coronavirus vaccine: UK grandmother is first person outside trials to get Pfizer Covid-19 shot
Uploaded: 2020-12-20T01:15:10.000Z
Duration: 1 min 55 s
Description: Coronavirus vaccine: UK grandmother is first person outside trials to get Pfizer Covid-19 shot

Worries about the effects of a vaccine are understandable. The government must respond with empathy, and correct and up-to-date information about the vaccines, especially the Chinese-made ones that have been the subject of suspicion

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A Sinovac employee checks Covid-19 vaccines during a media tour in September of a new factory built in Beijing to produce the vaccines. Hong Kong has announced procurement agreements with three pharmaceutical companies, including Sinovac. Photo: AFP

Ken Chu

Published: 9:15am, 20 Dec 2020Updated: 9:19am, 20 Dec 2020

For almost a year, the world has been reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, it appears we are beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel, with Britain and the United States administrating the first shots of a vaccine developed by the American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer with Germany’s BioNTech.

Many governments around the world plan to inoculate their residents with Covid-19 vaccines, including Hong Kong’s. The Carrie Lam administration has announced procurement agreements with three pharmaceutical companies. One is mainland-based Sinovac Biotech, which will provide a million doses in January. The other two are China’s Fosun Pharma, which will supply the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and the UK’s AstraZeneca.

Unfortunately, the Sinovac vaccine has been the subject of heated debate and even malicious attacks, especially on social media.

Denouncing what she sees as politicisation of the government’s procurement process, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor stressed at a media briefing that the government’s decision to procure mainland-manufactured vaccines was based on scientific evidence.

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Coronavirus vaccine: UK grandmother is first person outside trials to get Pfizer Covid-19 shot

It cannot be ruled out that the gossip surrounding the Sinovac vaccines is politically motivated, and any blatantly false or scientifically unfounded rumours must be corrected.