Forget ‘zero Covid’, vaccinate the most vulnerable and learn to live with coronavirus, Hong Kong doctor says
- A 75-year-old is 230 times more likely to die from Covid-19 or its complications than a 20-year-old, and an 85-year-old 600 times more likely, David Owens says
- While ‘zero Covid’ was the best strategy initially, we have to learn to live with Covid-19 and vaccinate those who most need it, as Singapore is doing, he says
Herd immunity from the coronavirus has been widely touted as the holy grail – if we reach a 70 per cent vaccination rate then all will be saved and we can hope for life to return to some degree of normality. It’s a message that makes family doctor Dr David Owens recoil.
The people we should be vaccinating, he says, are the elderly and the most vulnerable in our communities. He cites Hong Kong government statistics: at present, only 5 per cent of residents in elderly-care homes are vaccinated – and they are the ones most likely to die if they get Covid-19.
A 75-year-old is nine times more likely to end up in intensive care and 230 times more likely to die than a 20-year-old. At 85 years of age, intensive care admission is 15 times more likely and death 600 times more likely.
“It’s incredibly important to get the right message across, but there are cultural issues, belief issues, politics. Across that whole thing, there is a relatively simple message that needs to get out there to encourage and educate people on the need for vaccines,” says Owens.