Vancouver Moves from Pandemic, HK still Bickering

Chan says vaccine pass the only way to bump up jab rate

It's been one month since I came back to Vancouver and so far, so good. 

While the sixth wave of Covid-19 here apparently peaked last week, there is no urgent concern about it in the media -- in fact media outlets are tired of reporting on the pandemic and have now jumped on Monkey Pox, a very rare skin disease that was discovered in two patients so far in Quebec.

This is a stark contrast to Hong Kong, where health experts are verbally duelling with the Secretary for Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee about vaccinations. 

Cowling says vaccine pass can cause hesitancy

Two University of Hong Kong academics, epidemiologist Ben Cowling and assistant pharmacy professor Theo Chan Tak-kwong say the government should drop the vaccine pass, as it forces people to get jabs in order to go to work, and so it makes them even more hesitant to get inoculated.

However, Dr Sophia Chan wrote in an opinion piece in Ming Pao that the vaccine pass was still necessary to build the city's immunity against Covid-19 so that its residents can resume a relatively normal life as Hong Kong continues to strive for dynamic zero -- a goal many experts say is impossible to achieve.

She noted some people may not want to get vaccinated as they didn't see the benefits of it, and hinted they were being selfish instead of thinking of the greater public good. And so Chan said the authorities needed to build a strong immunity barrier to protect people who are high risk from the coronavirus, including the elderly and patients with chronic diseases.

HKers need jabs to dine out, go to movies, etc

But the elderly and those with chronic diseases are the ones who should be prioritised in getting jabbed -- even if it's with the Chinese-made vaccine Sinovac.

During her tenure as the Secretary for Health, less than 23 percent of people over 80 were vaccinated when the fifth wave hit, which resulted in just under 7,000 deaths in March alone.

But honestly it's quite shocking to hear people in Hong Kong only recently getting their second jab, when I am waiting to get my fourth in a few months' time.

Another infectious diseases expert, Yuen Kwok-yung, agreed with Chan, saying the vaccine pass was necessary to increase the number of vaccinations to prevent another wave of infections, unless 95 percent of the population was inoculated.

In British Columbia, it's quite surprising to hear that even though 84 percent of the population have had two doses, it drops down to 52.1 percent for the booster. Seems that many people here have pandemic fatigue and want to move on, while others, particularly the elderly are actively wearing masks on the street and in stores.

Over 84 percent British Columbians inoculated

Companies here are trying to entice their employees to come back to the office, but people are dragging their feet or demanding more days at home, while in Hong Kong it's pretty much expected people return to the office unless they are vaccinated -- another reason not to get jabbed.

And so the cycle continues...