Last Call for Sinovac Jabs in HK

Sinovac was the vaccine of choice of mostly pro-Beijing ppl

Remember when vaccines were first available in Hong Kong during the Covid-19 pandemic and there were two to choose from -- Sinovac from China, and Pfizer-BioNTech from Germany? 

Sinovac is an inactivated vaccines, whereas BioNTech is an mRNA vaccine that doesn't use a live virus to trigger an immune response. Instead it teaches the body's cells to make proteins to trigger an immune response by making antibodies to fight the infection when the virus enters the body.

For the most part in Hong Kong, choosing the vaccine fell along political lines -- those who were pro-Beijing got the Sinovac jab, others the latter, though some people refused to get any kind of vaccination because of total mistrust of the government, which to me was mind boggling.

Then CE Carrie Lam chose Sinovac for her jab

In the end the US Center for Disease Control found in a 2022 report that receiving two or three doses of mRNA vaccine resulted in a 90 percent reduction in the risk of being infected with Covid-19 or death. Having three jabs during the Omicron wave gave 94 percent protection.

Hong Kong continued to offer Sinovac, but that offer ends soon as the government has almost finished using up its supply of Chinese vaccines.

The Centre for Health Protection said it would stop offering the Sinovac jab after its current supply expires on October 3. 

"The vaccine supplier confirmed that they will no longer produce the vaccine," the centre said.

Perhaps it's because the vaccine has been shown to not be very effective?

Interestingly the Hong Kong government is still urging those who have not yet been vaccinated this whole time to do so with Sinovac at least, and then get an mRNA vaccine after.