Editorial | Persuasion the lasting answer to vaccine resistance
- Hong Kong still battles obstacles to vaccine take-up. Access to clear, verified information that clarifies misconceptions and perceptions is pivotal to changing that
- The government needs to come up with a better strategy for distributing easily digestible quality information
Vaccination may be a global response to the Covid-19 pandemic, but Hong Kong continues to battle obstacles to take-up, such as misinformation and anti-vaccination sentiment.
As a result, the city has a single-jab vaccination rate that has only just passed 80 per cent, with resistance high among the elderly and the young. The obstacle of personal choice cannot be overcome with compulsion, only countered with tireless persuasion and disincentives like exclusion of the unvaccinated from specified venues or activities.
Ultimately, the lasting answer is persuasion. Access to clear, verified information that clarifies misconceptions and perceptions is pivotal.
Persuasion must first take into account concerns behind vaccine resistance.
Surely one of the most daunting examples is to be found in the results of a survey of more than 11,000 parents of kindergarten-to-primary schoolchildren by the Education University of Hong Kong. It found that only 10 per cent are willing to let their children have a vaccine, and 85 per cent are concerned about side effects.