Lee Cries Covid Wolf

Lee claims Covid-19 is six times more deadly than the flu

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu is sounding the alarm, but does anyone care anymore?

He warned Covid-19 is six times more fatal than the flu, but health experts dispute this, saying the mortality rates of the two respiratory diseases are similar, partly because of high levels of immunity.

They estimate the fatality rate for Covid-19 in Hong Kong is at 0.098 percent, which is close to the 0.1 percent for influenza; they said this is because of the city's high vaccination coverage for the coronavirus and natural immunity levels.

Dr Hui says death rate actually much lower

Dr Leung Pak-yin, a former chief executive of the Hospital Authority says the Covid-19 fatality rate of 0.6 percent cited by Lee "failed to differentiate between this current wave and the fifth wave during February to March," he said.

"With the build-up of the immunity barrier in the community, the [Covid-19] death rate in Hong Kong since May has been similar to that of flue," Leung said on social media.

He also said Lee was calculating the fatality rate by lumping all the Covid-19-related deaths together (9,511), instead of focusing on those since May 15 (356 deaths) because Omicron is a sub-variant.

"Analysing data has to be precise. Death rates vary according to the mutation of the virus, and the community infection situation," Leung said.

Professor David Hui Shu-cheong, who is the government's pandemic advisor, agreed with Leung. Dr Joseph Tsang Kay-yan, chairman of the Medical Association's advisory committee on communicable diseases said the recent death rate of 0.098 could be even lower due to under-reported infections, as Omicron is less deadly.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection agreed the fatality rate was at around 0.1 percent.

Dr Chuang says mortality rate around 0.1 percent

"In the fifth wave after May, the overall death rate is certainly lower than that from December to April. I think that is because many people had been infected before, and more people had got vaccinated," she said.

But Chuang added the mortality rate among elderly coronavirus patients could be higher, but not to the extent suggested by Lee.

Why is he doing this? Perhaps to continue justifying Hong Kong's zero-Covid strategy, or to scare people into getting vaccinated. But those who have managed to travel outside the city this summer can attest that the rest of the world has moved on from Covid-19 for the most part, and that when people are infected, they mostly experience flu-like symptoms, or are even asymptomatic. There is basically nothing to fear.

It seems like Lee is crying wolf which contradicts top health experts' assessments. His lumping all the cases together is a pathetic attempt at massaging the numbers to suit his message. And then it is completely shot down by a bunch of doctors.

Perhaps this is their way of resisting against the government instructions to only speak with one voice -- one voice against the city's leader?

Health Minister Criticised for Pandemic Fifth Wave Response

Chan shed a few tears in her last meeting with Legco

Yesterday at her last meeting with the Legislative Council, outgoing Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee shed a few tears as she thanked Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-gnor for having trust in her.

When she leaves office on June 30, Chan will have completed 10 years in the civil service, the last few years undoubtedly the most challenging on her career in having to deal with the response to Covid-19 in Hong Kong.

However, many believe she and her department could have done much more, particularly prior to the fifth wave in getting more elderly vaccinated, which could have mitigated the number of deaths during this period, as well as handed out rapid antigen tests and masks to the vulnerable.

Ho criticised government's response to fifth wave

How can anyone forget the scenes outside public hospitals where elderly patients were left there in the elements because there wasn't enough bed space. Those images were shocking and shameful.

Microbiologist Ho Pak-leung called on the government to apologise to residents for its failure to deal with the city's outbreaks.

On a radio show, he slammed Chan for failing to prepare appropriate Covid responses, even though Hong Kong had long been achieving Covid-zero before the fifth wave of the epidemic started.

Ho said Chan wasted time in not getting more of the elderly vaccinated before the fifth wave, which resulted in a spike in deaths. Ho said this taught Hong Kong a "painful lesson".

He called on the current government to issue a formal apology to its citizens or build a monument in memory of those who died during the city's fifth wave.

While a formal apology would be nice, the monument would be overboard... unless for propaganda purposes...

Seniors lying outside hospitals with no space

Yesterday Hong Kong recorded 1,323 cases, and Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection is warning the number could go up to 2,000 soon.

"We are seeing a slow increase, a gradual increase in the number of cases recently and there have been no signs of decreasing in the past few days," Chuang said. "We expect the cases will be going up and may exceed 2,000 in the near future."

But she also noted the number of hospital admissions and severe cases and deaths is stable.

This does not bode well for the upcoming July 1 anniversary... it looks less likely Chinese leader Xi Jinping will come down here for mark the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to China.

Does this mean Premier Li Ke-qiang is going instead?

The intrigue continues...

Covid Cluster in Kennedy Town

Sai Wan Estate has been locked down after infections found

It was quite a surprise to see the University of Hong Kong's medical faculty posted a warning on Twitter for its staff and students to be aware that there is a Covid-19 cluster in Kennedy Town and to avoid eating and doing any "mask off activities" in the area!

Kennedy Town was where I lived for nine years, a sleepy residential area that soon became hipster when the MTR came in and droves of people came to check out Instagram pier (that unceremoniously closed almost two years ago), have coffee from Arabica and buy bulk food from Slowood.

Instagram pier was a fun photo-op place

When HKU medical faculty issued this warning, it was unusual because the Centre for Health Protection didn't report a growing cluster in this area in Western district. But the health authorities have since locked down an entire housing estate and found 22 infections out of 1,680 people tested so far. 

Yesterday Chuang Shuk-kwan of the CHP said they had found "very high viral loads" in the sewage samples from Sai Wan Estate, especially in its building called West Terrace.

All five blocks are locked down until Friday morning after compulsory testing is completed. 

Hong Kong recorded 294 new cases, and one death.

This contrasts significantly with Taiwan which has just over 90,000 new cases.

I arrived in Los Angeles this morning. To prepare for the flight we complied with all the requisite US government requirements: a rapid antigen test conducted by a medical professional (CAD$90 each) and have the written test result printed out, and a copy of the vaccination record. 

Flying into LA this morning

We uploaded all this information when we checked-in online, though for some reason when I uploaded my Hong Kong vaccination record it could not be done and I was instructed online to show this document at the airport.

Just in case I printed out everything, the attestation that we each tested negative and we were vaccinated (at least two jabs). When we arrived bleary-eyed at the airport at 5.30am, no one asked to see any of this paperwork, none of the airline staff nor US immigration officers...