Vaccine hesitancy puts Asia’s ‘zero-Covid’ economies like Hong Kong, Australia in herd immunity stalemate
- While jabbed-up Europe prepares to open its borders, public reluctance towards Covid-19 shots is so great in zero-tolerance places like Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan it puts in doubt their ability to reach the threshold
- Incentives are needed if these places are to avoid becoming isolated from the rest of the world, experts say
For many Asia-Pacific economies that practically eliminated the virus with border closures and sporadic lockdowns, herd immunity, long held out as the great hope for returning to normality, is looking increasingly out of reach.
For authorities with zero tolerance for infections, the lack of public enthusiasm for vaccines, coupled with limited vaccine supplies, raises the spectre of a permanent pandemic stalemate, in which borders stay closed indefinitely and sporadic outbreaks remain an ever-present threat.
The grim outlook, which comes as Europe prepares to reopen its borders to vaccinated travellers within days, highlights what a growing number of experts say is an urgent need for bold action by authorities to break the impasse.
“There is a sense there is a lot to lose if we allow any community transmission, but in reality we worked hard to get to this stage so we could shift to relying on the protections vaccines offer, and knowing we could now let the virus in and maintain the upper hand,” said Catherine Bennett, a public health expert and epidemiologist at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia.
“Our leaders need to demonstrate this confidence to the public. Otherwise the public is also uncertain and then thinks borders need to stay closed, so why bother vaccinating, and you get into a vicious cycle that actually leaves the population more vulnerable.”