People in Hong Kong don't want to get vaccinated: the government could have to throw away millions of doses

Hong Kong could throw away millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines because their expiration date is approaching and very few people have signed up to receive them, given the distrust of the population, a local authority warned on Tuesday. Britain is one of the few places in the world that was able to secure more than enough doses to inoculate its population of 7.5 million inhabitants, but mistrust in the government, combined with misinformation on social media and few cases of contagion , have led to a low level of vaccination. On Tuesday, a member of the government commission for vaccines warned that Hong Kongers “only have a three-month window” before the expiration of the first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. “These vaccines have an expiration date,” Thomas Tsang, former comptroller of the Center for Health Protection, told RTHK radio. “They cannot be used after the expiration date and BioNTech community vaccination centers will stop operating in September. , as planned, “he added. So far only 19% of the city’s population has received one dose of any vaccine, while 14% have received both doses. Even among health workers there are doubts about receiving vaccines. The city’s Hospital Authority revealed this month that only a third of its staff have been vaccinated. Hong Kong received 3.26 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, but only 1.23 million have been injected. The others remain unused and must be stored at ultra-low temperatures and have a six-month expiration period.The Hong Kong authorities’ warning comes as other regions of the world, particularly low-income countries, are racing in search of vaccines to combat strong outbreaks of Covid-19. Six leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean asked this Monday Equitable access to vaccines for the international community and for rich countries to share their surpluses. Alberto Fernández, President of Argentina, signed the request; Carlos Alvarado, president of Costa Rica; Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President of Mexico; Andrew Michael Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica; Luis Alberto Arce Catacora, President of Bolivia; Guillermo Lasso Mendoza, President of Ecuador, and Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou, President of Uruguay.