Coronavirus Vaccine

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Coronavirus vaccine FAQs including the latest timetable for vaccine rollout and vaccine efficacy data plus news and updates on research into a vaccine to combat coronavirus which has infected tens of millions of people and led to the deaths of more than three million around the globe.

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News
Health & Environment
The group says it is publishing its findings to coincide with the release of the most recent mRNA vaccine targeting the latest JN.1 variant. Photo: Sam Tsang
Health & Environment
About 90% of vulnerable Hongkongers got last Covid jab more than 12 months ago
Concern group urges residents to get inoculated against Covid-19 as city enters winter flu season.
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Moderna’s survey results indicate a “growing complacency” even as coronavirus variants continue to evolve. Photo: Shutterstock
Tech
Hong Kong residents reticent to get latest Covid-19 jab, Moderna survey finds
About 52 per cent of Hong Kong respondents said they were willing to get the updated vaccine, compared with 58 per cent in Singapore.
3
Leon Wang, AstraZeneca’s China president, speaks at an event in Hong Kong in November 2023. Photo: Jelly Tse
Science
AstraZeneca’s China president under ‘ongoing investigation’: company
Drug maker has yet to elaborate whether Leon Wang is in custody, nor have his whereabouts been disclosed.
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The infant is currently being treated at Kwong Wah Hospital in Yau Ma Tei. Photo: Jelly Tse
Health & Environment
Hong Kong infant critically ill after Covid infection, public urged to get jabs
Centre for Health Protection says child being treated at Kwong Wah Hospital’s paediatric intensive care unit.
7
Mice given the nanovaccine plus two boosters within 42 days produced antibody levels that persisted even after six months, team says in paper published in ACS Nano. Photo: Xinhua
Science
China’s Wuhan institute creates nasal Covid-19 vaccine for ‘future pandemics’
‘Broad spectrum’ nanovaccine can target multiple coronaviruses, says team at institute once in spotlight over Covid lab leak theory.
Asia
Mpox makes resurgence around Asia
Passengers are seen wearing masks at Admiralty MTR station on Saturday. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
Comment
It is time for Hongkongers to consider another Covid booster
There has been a worrying series of outbreaks in care homes and hospitals, prompting calls for high-risk groups to update vaccination jabs.
3
The Sinovac jab was one of two vaccines offered in Hong Kong at the height of the pandemic. Photo: Jelly Tse
Health & Environment
Hong Kong to stop offering Sinovac Covid jabs when stocks expire in October
Authorities say they expect new jab targeting prevalent JN.1 variant will be available by the end of the year.
A Singapore coroner has ruled that a 72-year-old woman, who a day after getting a Covid jab, died from heart failure, not from taking the vaccine. Photo: AFP
Southeast Asia
Heart failure, not Covid vaccine to blame for woman’s death in Singapore: coroner
In his report, Coroner Christopher Goh noted that Chan Yoke Chew, who died a day after taking her first Covid shot, had a known history of diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.
A European court on Wednesday said the European Commission did not give the public sufficient access to the purchase agreements for Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic. Photo: Reuters
Europe
European Commission wrong to redact Covid-19 vaccine deal details: EU court
The commission failed to show how divulging indemnification details would harm the commercial interests of the pharmaceutical groups supplying the vaccines, the EU General Court ruled.
1
HKU microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung, discusses his new autobiography in his office at Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam. Photo: May Tse
Health & Environment
Safety concerns behind Hong Kong giving up AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccines: book
In My Life in Medicine: A Hong Kong Journey, Professor Yuen Kwok-yung sheds light about his time as a government adviser during Covid.
Rodrigo Duterte, then president of the Philippines, receives a Chinese Covid-19 vaccine at the presidential palace in Manila on May 3, 2021, to encourage more Filippinos to get vaccinated amid the pandemic. Photo: Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division via AP
China Opinion
Opinion|No good reason for US to spread anti-vax rumours in the Philippines
Whatever one thinks of the Sinovac jab, it is unconscionable to undermine public confidence towards vaccines in a partner country during a pandemic.
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A mobile vaccination site in Taguig, Metro Manila, Philippines, May 21, 2021. Photo: Reuters
Opinion|US anti-vax campaign in Philippines smacks of an own goal
Whatever one thinks of the Sinovac jab, it is unconscionable to undermine public confidence towards vaccines in a partner country during a pandemic.
A staff member transports cargos containing Sinovac vaccines donated by the Chinese government in Pasay City, the Philippines, in December 2021. Photo: Xinhua
Politics
In Philippines, experts warn anger over US anti-vax report could hurt ties
Philippine lawmakers urge probe into ‘deeply troubling’ report that observers say could damage Filipinos’ trust in the US.
18
According to a Reuters report, the Pentagon tried to discredit Chinese company Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine at the height of the pandemic. Photo: AFP
Diplomacy
China lashes out at US over report of Pentagon’s secret anti-vax campaign
Beijing calls on Washington to ‘stop fabricating and disseminating false information against other countries’.
41
The Pentagon’s campaign targeting the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine reached Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East, Reuters says. Photo: AFP
China
Sinovac hits back over reported US campaign to discredit China’s Covid vaccine
Chinese pharmaceutical company says Pentagon’s social media attack targeting its coronavirus jabs could lead to ‘enormous disaster’.
106
A doctor receives a dose of Covid vaccine at a Singapore hospital in 2021. The city state’s health ministry said it categorically rejected the opposition party’s egregious and false claims. Photo: Reuters
Southeast Asia
Singapore slams opposition claims linking Covid vaccines to excess deaths
The opposition People’s Power Party had attempted to draw associations between high vaccination rates and excess deaths in a Facebook post citing “so-called experts”, the health ministry said.
Dr Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies in Washington on Monday. Photo: Getty Images/AFP
News
Ex-health official Fauci counters accusations he played role in Covid origins
Long-time American infectious disease expert tells Republican-led House panel that bribery allegations are ‘absolutely false and simply preposterous’.
1
A man takes pictures of a mask wearing a face mask in front of the Marina Bay Sands hotel. The new wave accounts for more than two-thirds of infections in the city state. Photo: AFP
Health & Environment
‘No reason to panic’ in Singapore, even with latest wave of Covid-19 infections
Infectious disease experts in Singapore say there is ‘no reason to panic’, even as the ‘mildness of this current wave’ may cause it to drag out for a long time.
The government offers vaccinations to children, including Primary One pupils, through its immunisation programme. Photo: Winson Wong
Health & Environment
Hong Kong doctors must be ‘vigilant against upsurge’ of whooping cough cases
Health authorities say city registered 28 infections as of Thursday, a significant post-pandemic ‘resurgence’ from last year’s total of 15 cases.
Dr Shigeru Omi, chairman of the Japanese government’s advisory panel on the pandemic, attends an online news conference in Tokyo, Japan, in June 2021. Omi was among the health experts who were targeted. Photo: Reuters
Health & Environment
Half of Japan’s Covid-19 experts faced threats, abuse by ‘anti-vaxxers’: survey
Threats included office damage, slashed car tyres, letters with box-cutter blades, and messages about ‘crazy ideas’ and conspiracy theories.
Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, testifies at a US House of Representatives select subcommittee hearing on the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Getty Images via AFP
Science
Lone American on WHO team probing Covid in China denies research caused pandemic
Scientist defends collaboration with Wuhan lab as yielding ‘direct public health benefits’ for the US, with virus work saving ‘countless lives’.
7
Yang Xiaoming is a former chairman of Sinopharm’s vaccine subsidiary, China National Biotec Group. He also served as a chief engineer and chief scientist at Sinopharm. Photo: SCMP
Politics
Man behind China’s first approved Covid-19 shot loses seat in legislature
Yang Xiaoming has lost his post as NPC deputy over alleged ‘serious violations of discipline and law’, NPC Standing Committee says, as China cracks down on corruption in the healthcare sector.
5
Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro greets supporters after attending a campaign event launching the pre-candidacy of a mayoral candidate, in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: AP
Americas
Brazil’s Bolsonaro indicted over alleged falsification of own vaccination data
Police accuse Bolsonaro and his aides of tampering with the health ministry’s database shortly before he travelled to the US in December 2022.
1
A German man claims he voluntarily received 217 Covid jabs. Photo: Shutterstock
Europe
German with ‘comically large number’ of Covid jabs – 217 – had no side effects
Researchers, said the man voluntarily received so many shots against all medical advice, and warned against jumping to far-reaching conclusions from this single case.
Opinion
Editorial|Hong Kong drug trials institute a healthy step forward
City closes in on fulfilling its ambition to be medical hub with its own approval authority for drugs and vaccines at cross-border tech zone.
SCMP Editorial
Editorial|Covid case sends jabs reminder to Hong Kong parents
Ordeal of 10-month-old Hong Kong girl, whose condition has improved, gives reason to get children vaccinated against coronavirus and flu.
SCMP Editorial
1
Asian Angle|US has to regain Asean’s trust after its anti-China Covid jab fake news campaign
News of the US military’s secret disinformation campaign to undermine China’s Covid-19 vaccine has outraged the Philippines.
Nuurrianti Jalli
12
My Take|Now is the time to talk about vaccines, but Covid-19 leaves polarising legacy
Anti-vaxxers and jab proponents push warring narratives, making rational discussions about medical benefits and risks difficult. But the best time for candour and intensive research is now – before another pandemic hits.
Josephine Ma
1
Inside Out|How nationalism threatens a repeat of Covid-19 tragedies in next pandemic
An initially strong draft WHO treaty focusing on rapid information sharing, fair vaccine distribution and relaxing intellectual property rights appears to have been diluted. Failure to forge an agreement and put aside national differences would be a tragedy for which we will pay a terrible price, perhaps very soon.
David Dodwell
Editorial|Better to be safe than sorry on Hong Kong Covid and flu front
As city enters peak flu season with Covid-19 cases once more on the rise, now is the time to remember health lessons and get vaccinated.
SCMP Editorial
My Take|Anti-vaxxers highlight political polarisation in North America
Divisions in the democratic West long considered sources of strength, except by the Chinese authorities, are now being seen in a new light.
SCMP ColumnistAlex Lo
8
Editorial|Do the right thing, get those flu jabs ahead of the Hong Kong winter season
With vaccinations now freely available, those from high-risk groups have no excuse to ignore warnings of city’s health professionals
SCMP Editorial
1
Editorial|Nobel medicine prize winners saluted by all
Scientists’ work on mRNA technology paved the way for vaccines in the global fight against Covid-19 and raises Hong Kong hopes of becoming a biotech hub.
SCMP Editorial
7
Outside In|Elusive UN pandemic treaty points to dangerous Covid amnesia
Eagerness to move on from the death and destruction of the pandemic is understandable but also risks keeping us from learning necessary lessons. Failure to make urgently needed reforms would be a tragedy for which the world would pay a terrible price for a second time.
David Dodwell
8
Outside In|Political silence on inequality is strangling prosperity and democracy
Academics warn that inaction is corroding politics and trust, and weakening prosperity and multilateralism, as support grows for the idea that democracy delivers unfair outcomes.
David Dodwell
7
The View|UN must take lead to curb damage from deep-sea mining frenzy
The failure of negotiations over how to safeguard ocean health and achieve equitable sharing of mining profits has opened the door to new projects. The agency in charge of the world’s seabeds now must consider and provisionally approve any mining requests, making regulation all the more urgent.
James David Spellman
1
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