Hong Kong might be forced to throw off out millions of expiring Pfizer - BioNTech covid-19 vaccine loony toons within the next three month , according to a member of Hong Kong ’s coronavirus labor force . Hong Kong secured enough vaccine doses for its population of 7.5 million , with both Pfizer vaccine and China ’s Sinovac , but has still struggled with low inoculation rates .
“ We only have mayhap a three month window to get immunise with [ Pfizer - BioNTech ] , ” Dr. Thomas Tsang , a member of Hong Kong ’s coronavirus undertaking force , told local public wireless programHong Kong Todayon Tuesday .
“ After that , it may be much more difficult and the whole cosmos is scrambling for vaccinum , ” Tsang added .
A woman walks past a small temple in the Central district of Hong Kong on April 29, 2021Photo: Anthony Wallace/AFP (Getty Images)
Tsang noted that less than 20 % of the universe of Hong Kong has make at least one battery-acid , due in large part to the proportional downhearted rate of contagion in the region . multitude simply do n’t think they postulate to get the vaccinum if there is n’t covid-19 spreading wide in the community .
There ’s also vaccine hesitancy in the realm because masses believe they can hold back to see if others experience side gist , something that has get a lot of coverage in Hong Kong media .
“ The false concept about safety is quite inauspicious , ” Tsang enounce , pertain to medium stories about serious side effects from the coronavirus vaccines , something that ’s incredibly rare .
Even health worker in Hong Kong are n’t getting immunise at sufficient pace , as theAFPnotes , with only about a third of eligible doctors and nurses getting the shots .
“ We are quite favorable in that right now we do n’t have a covid-19 outbreak , ” Tsang said . “ But the timeline in Singapore teaches us that we can get into problem quite easily . ”
Singapore has seen a spate in new cases that health officials have n’t been able to the right way trace to a known source . Singapore and Hong Kong were force to cancel a so - calledtravel bubbledue to Singapore ’s late infections .
Ironically , nation that did relatively well during the first year of the covid-19 pandemic are now area that are struggle to get their people vaccinated . And that makes those same regions vulnerable to fresh outbreaks as the disease still devastate much of the world .
Australia , for example , has seen grand vaccine hesitancy , a result of both crushed infection charge per unit and a bungled vaccine rollout by the Australian government . Australia has reported 29,955 covid-19 cases and 910 destruction since the start of the pandemic , but has deal out just3.6 million dosesof covid-19 vaccinum to its population of approximately 25 million hoi polloi .
And Australia is starting to see how that could lead in very poor final result for the remainder of 2021 . The Australian state of Victoria introduced new covid-19 restrictions on Tuesday afterfour new caseswere discovered around the city of Melbourne — an up - and - down regime of restrictions that Australians have start to get used to as single - digit outbreak come and go .
The world wo n’t be able to truly end the covid-19 pandemic until a absolute majority of the world is vaccinated . And while places that were hard - murder are now getting vaccine out quickly , like the U.S. and UK , country that did n’t suffer many death from covid-19 are now the ace who require a fleet kick in the ass to get their vaccination program moving . Otherwise you wind up with a lot of expired vaccines on the shelf that should ’ve gone into citizenry ’s blazonry — the precise scenario that Hong Kong now confront .
BioNTechCOVID-19COVID-19 vaccinesMedicinePfizerRNA vaccines
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