Continued pandemic concerns in Hong Kong, including with regards to vaccinations

 

Boosted!

 

Hong Kong recorded 5 new cases of the Wuhan coronvirus today, down from the previous day's 9 new cases, Thursday's 14 and Wednesday's 22.  It's also comforting to learn that today (like with Thursday, but not yesterday or Wednesday) saw zero new local cases reported.  Nonetheless, there are people who worry that we are by no means out of the woods.  E.g., epidemiologist Ben Cowling Tweeted yesterday that the "Situation now is eerily reminiscent of the start of our fourth wave, when it seemed like the outbreak was coming under control, and then it turned out it wasn't" and that "Test and trace won't break every transmission chain, even when done as well as it's done in Hong Kong".  

 

To this end, I was not surprised to learn that the Hong Kong government announced yesterday that it would be extending the current social distancing rules to cover the first few days of the Lunar New Year: i.e., for another two weeks beyond the toughened measures' original stated end date of January 20th.  This means that there will be no lunar new year flower markets.  

 

And the way things are going, it's also entirely possible that people can't go watch this year's edition of the tradition Chinese New Year movies in cinemas during Chinese New Year -- though let's hope not since Chinese New Year actually lasts for 15 days and the current extension of the tough covid measures that has seen cinemas being closed along with gyms, museums and a number of other facilities and venues since January 5th are due to end on the third day of Chinese New Year!

 

Something else that was touched on at Carrie Lam's press conference but not detailed was that the "vaccine bubble" that had previously been mooted  -- and is slated to include schools, public cultural and recreational venues, and, most importantly for many people, all restaurants -- will have its start date brought forward from the previously stated February 24th.  This is one of the rare moves by the government that I applaud; with the caveat that I actually think this is one of those things that they should have done months ago!

 

Earlier this week, I went and got my third shot of the mRNA vaccine most well known internationally as Pfizer but known as BioNTech and/or Cominarty here in Hong Kong.  The nurse who administered my jab told me that I was the rare person who had gone for a booster that she knew of; with her mostly seeing people getting vaccinated for the first time against the coronavirus thus far in 2022.  

 

Also, when I asked her whether many people were motivated to get their first shots because of the Omicron variant now being in Hong Kong, she responded in the negative.  Instead, it appears that the vast majority of people going to get vaccinated are doing so because they don't want to not be able to go out with their friends!  And while much has been made of how much yum cha means to the elderly, the nurse I was chatting with informed me that, actually, many younger folk were among the recent first time vaccinated Hong Kongers who finally felt compelled to get a jab because of the talk of the imposition of a "vaccine bubble" soon.   

 

The question I have now is: since the mooted "vaccine bubble"'s current requirement is just one solitary jab, are many people going to be content with getting only one jab rather than two or three?  (And this even while medical wisdom has it that three jobs are far better than two or one against Omicron.)  For the distinct feeling I'm getting is that these folks are only getting vaccinated in order to be allowed to have access to restaurants and such that will be covered by the "vaccine bubble" rather than because they actually think that the vaccines will help protect them and others from getting seriously ill, including with "long Covid", or worse.    

Then there are the "yellow" Hong Kongers who have decided that they absolutely won't do anything that the government tells them to do, including get vaccinated against the coronavirus.  To which I will repeat the message I've sought to send as far back as May of last year: i.e., that "with the authorities having shown their preference for the Sinovac vaccine over BioNTech's, why can't and don't people show their civil disobedience by going and getting the BioNTech vaccine rather than not protecting themselves by eschewing any vaccine altogether?"