Given a choice between trusting Hongkongers or threatening them, the Lam administration is always more comfortable with the latter option. This fundamental disdain for the people and intense politicization of the pandemic lurks at the heart of Hong Kong’s miserable failure to implement a successful Covid vaccination policy.

As matters stand a singularly unimpressive 16 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated, with just over 21 per cent had received a first dose. This compares with Singapore where 31 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated.

According to a recent survey by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the government’s distrust of the people is mirrored by popular distrust of the government and helps explain why only a quarter of those questioned plan to join the vaccination program in the next six months.

Most respondents said that the main reason for their reluctance was fear of severe reactions to injections, a fear exacerbated by a failure to provide proper and intelligible information, bolstered by a new plan to reduce information over injection side effect by reducing the frequency of reports of fatalities and other problems that have affected people after being vaccinated, whether or not they are actually caused by the injections.

Secondly, the survey reflected a general lack of distrust in the government producing an inclination to be wary of anything officials say.

Instead of dealing with the public’s concern the Lam administration appears to believe that people can be bullied into being vaccinated by threatening them with travel bans and denial of entry to so-called ‘high-risk’ public venues.

And, to add insult to injury, officials airily dismiss real concerns over vaccination effects and think these can be ignored as long as recalcitrant members of the public are given off days off work, lucky draws and a variety of giveaways.

Common sense incentives for vaccination, such as ending quarantine for those who have been vaccinated, have been ignored not because they do not work but because politics has dictated the government’s choice of preferred vaccines.

As part of the mission by the Chief Executive in Name Only (CENO’s) to brandish her patriotic credentials, Carrie Lam has been hell bent on promoting use of the Mainland-produced Sinovac vaccination.

Despite promises throughout this year that Sinovac would be passing its third stage trials and securing endorsement from the World Health Organization (WHO), this only happened last week, in other words months after the vaccination program was launched both in Hong Kong and the Mainland. Even with this belated endorsement the facts of the matter are that with an efficacy rate of some 50 per cent Sinovac is rated as the least effective of the vaccines endorsed by the WHO.

Because Sinovac offers such a low level of protection there are fears that those who have received this inoculation will not have sufficient protection to prevent transmission. The experts who gave the go-ahead for Sinovac are aware of this problem but will not say anything in public and may indeed need to be quarantined even after getting the jabs. This problem does not apply to recipients of the German-made BioNTech jab. But the government’s house-trained experts are reluctant to discuss this.

Nevertheless the news has percolated through and resulted in a majority of people opting for BioNTech. Not only is its efficacy above 90 per cent but it has proved to be effective against newly identified Covid variants. This must be disappointing to officials who think that proclaiming their loyalty to the Motherland is far more important than medical considerations.

This disappointment might well also be connected with almost unbelievable attempts to undermine confidence in BioNTech by stopping distribution of the vaccine for almost two weeks in response to some problem with the bottle tops. This was a very minor issue that could have been quickly resolved, so why was this not done?

In the latest blow to the integrity of the vaccination program the government has decided to issue quarantine exemptions to high level finance sector executives who are entering Hong Kong. There is not a shred of evidence that these executives are any more or less likely to spread the disease but a government that is not accountable to the people as a whole, tends to pay a great deal of attention to the wealthy and well connected and will put their interests ahead of those of ordinary people.

However it is the ordinary people who need to be part of the vaccination program if it is to have any chance of success. Confidence in the government’s claims that it is basing its battle against Covid on science is hardly likely to be enhanced by learning that science has been thrown out of the window to cater for the needs of the rich and well connected

So, if the CENO seriously wants to know why the vaccination program has been such a miserable failure, she needs only look in the mirror.

(Stephen Vines is a Hong Kong-based journalist, writer and broadcaster and runs companies in the food sector. He was the founding editor of ‘Eastern Express’ and founding publisher of ‘Spike’. In London he was an editor at The Observer and in Asia has worked for international publications including, the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, BBC, Asia Times and The Independent and, during Hong Kong’s 2019/20 protests, for the Sunday Times. He hosts a weekly television current affairs programme: The Pulse”

Vines’ latest book Defying the Dragon – Hong Kong and the world’s largest dictatorship, was published earlier this year by Hurst Publishing. He is the author of several books, including: Hong Kong: China’s New Colony, The Years of Living Dangerously - Asia from Crisis to the New Millennium, Market Panic and Food Gurus.)

From today onwards, Stephen Vines’s article can be found in our Columnist section.

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