"The important thing for me is that I've always listened to the science in the pandemic.
It's a scientific problem. We need the scientific solutions to it. We can't listen to politics, conspiracies or anything nonsense like that. Vaccines protect us. It's a simple fact, right?"
British teacher Scott Hegarty has been living in Hong Kong for nearly 6 years. He shared his observation on Hong Kong’s 5th wave of COVID-19 in a recent interview with GDToday.
Hong Kong’s situation shows vaccination does matter
After the 5th wave of COVID-19 broke out in Hong Kong, the primary way that Hegarty deals with the epidemic is to work from home, and he hasn't really gone outside very much. In addition to reducing contacts, he also got vaccinated last April.
As Hegarty has observed, it seems, for a lot of people in Hong Kong, the situation is really hard, even a number of his young students and their families have caught the virus. “It's a really stressful time for people because they need to worry about their jobs and the health of their vulnerable family members, such as the elderly and children.”
Of the deaths during this outbreak in Hong Kong, 89.4 percent were not vaccinated or had only one shot. Among those who died aged 80 or older, 91.5 percent had not been vaccinated or had only received one shot, according to Zhang Wenhong, head of the Center for Infectious Diseases at Huashan Hospital Affiliated with Fudan University.
The mortality analysis shows that the overall mortality rate for people who received one dose or no vaccination is 2.03 percent. Compared with 0.09 percent for those who received two doses, there is a 23-fold difference.
“There was a lot of misinformation about the vaccines, and I think that contributed to a lot of the fear and hesitancy in Hong Kong’s vaccination roll-outs.” Hegarty is strongly opposed to voices previously advocating that vaccines are useless and calling on residents not to get vaccinated.
Shenzhen, a good example for Hong Kong to fight against Omicron
Speaking of why this wave is so grave, Hegarty thinks that the local government did not prepare as much as they should have. “For example, the contact tracing is not as good as it is in the Chinese mainland,” he said, “so there are things that need to be tightened up.”
He has noticed daily necessities getting a little bit more expensive, especially vegetables. For people in Hong Kong who may be going through poverty, it might be quite difficult for them at the moment. In his opinion, what Hong Kong people need most is the ensuring of daily necessities, “fresh fruit, meat and vegetables are very important for our health.”
Medical resources sent from across the border are very useful as well, including testing kits. “For example, people are using rapid antigen tests in Hong Kong right now. But there was a period when it was difficult to find these things because everyone was panic shopping for them.”
He comments, “it's been very important that we've had help from the central government to deal with this epidemic. Because I think the local government alone could not handle this epidemic, especially with the lack of preparation.”
What should Hong Kong do to end the 5th wave of the epidemic as soon as possible?
Hegarty believes residents should listen to what the local experts have said and meanwhile, Shenzhen provides an example for them.
Shenzhen recently went into lockdown for about a week, and now the city is reopening. “They have already hit zero daily infections in certain districts, which shows this is the model that we need to follow if we want to get this done as soon as possible.”
Hegarty said, “As long as we have the manpower, resources and the technical knowledge from the central government, there's no reason why Hong Kong can't do the same thing.”
Reporter | Hannah
Video script | Reese (intern), Hannah
Video | Chen Weifeng
Video editor | Xie Miaofeng, Ou Xiaoming
Editor | Wing, Steven, Jasmine, Jerry
