Vaccination drive calls for vigilance against infodemic
The citywide vaccination program against the coronavirus got off to a promising start on Tuesday, with bookings at all vaccination centers until March 11 fully taken just hours after online bookings opened. On Monday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and several principal government officials received their first shots, supplied by Chinese mainland producer Sinovac, one of the world’s leading suppliers of COVID-19 vaccines. There had been no reports of any ill effects as of Thursday.
Hong Kong reported 13 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, compared with 17 cases a day earlier. Twelve of the 13 latest cases were locally transmitted and three had unknown sources, including a 16-year-old student who went to school on Tuesday and felt dizzy. New cases of unknown sources are a strong reason for a citywide vaccination program, which is crucial to achieving zero infections so that the city can resume normal daily activities for the sake of an effective economic recovery and to bring our yearlong nightmare to an end.
The desirable inoculation rate recommended by the World Health Organization is at least 80 percent of the population, which translates into about 6 million of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million population. The SAR government faces a tall order in getting so many people to take the vaccine shots as soon as possible. To do so, the authorities need to spread the word through all popular media platforms in addition to official information channels, with particular attention to dispelling myths about vaccines, especially slanderous misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines made by mainland producers. Medical professionals are obligated by their professional ethics to educate the public about vaccines that are clinically proven effective by WHO standards.
Meanwhile, the public should always be alert to misinformation from staunchly anti-China news media in Hong Kong and elsewhere, as well as untraceable claims disguised as secondhand news posted on social media platforms. Those rumor mills are tasked with driving a wedge between the mainland and Hong Kong however they can, no matter how much harm they cause to Hong Kong society with their malicious lies. Those who have an ax to grind have relentlessly tried to undermine cross-border anti-pandemic efforts, vilifying the mainland-assisted virus screening program, the voluntary universal testing campaign and the proposed compulsory universal testing program all the way.