Country that can’t pay people to get the jab

This country’s people wouldn’t even sign up to get the Covid vaccine if they got paid for it. There’s a reason why they are resisting.

Vaccine hesitancy is an issue in Australia. But the problem is a mere bump in the road compared to one territory.

The government of the Chinese region of Hong Kong is having trouble persuading many of its people to get inoculated with Covid-19 vaccines.

There have been calls for the Special Administrative Region (SAR) to offer people cash to get jabs.

But the territory’s leader Carrie Lam has conceded that if the Government started paying people to get jabbed it could make things even worse.

That’s likely related to a huge lack of trust in Hong Kong’s Government.

Hong Kong has inoculated fewer than a million of the SAR’s 7.5m residents having been fully immunised to date. That’s a better statistic than Australia but authorities had expected it to be far higher in Hong Kong given 527 million doses have been administered on the Chinese mainland.

The city may soon have to throw away millions of coronavirus vaccine doses from Pfizer/BioNTech because they are approaching their expiry date and not enough people have signed up for the jab.

Mistrust in Hong Kong government

Observers say mistrust of China, of the SAR government and a lack of urgency due to the low infection rate have resulted in resistance to vaccine take-up.

Hong Kong has stores of the Pfizer vaccine and China’s Sinovac, but an unofficial campaign of misinformation has made residents wary of getting the jab.

There have also been worries about the vaccine rollout. In March, Pfizer jabs were suspended for 10 days due to damaged packaging although there was no effect on safety.

With just three months left on the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, which require storage at very low temperatures and have a six month use-by date, the stores may be wasted.

Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 coronavirus vaccines unloaded from a Cathay Pacific cargo plane may have to be thrown out as they exceed their use-by date. Picture: Jerome Favre/AFP

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (above, in February) says she couldn’t even pay citizens to get vaccinated, such is the poor take-up. Picture: Anthony Wallace/AFP

Fear of China and the SAR government have fuelled vaccine refusal in Hong Kong (above, a health worker at a testing site). Picture: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images

Can’t pay people to get jabbed

Ms Lam, who herself was vaccinated back in February, has now admitted Hong Kong citizens have lost trust in her administration.

“To offer cash or something physical to encourage vaccination shouldn’t be done by the government and may even cause the opposite effect,” she said on Tuesday before the SAR executive council meeting.

Instead, she said private organisations or employers could provide economic incentives, such as cash or gifts, and shopping malls could create their own incentives.

Ms Lam said the government should limit itself to ensuring the sufficient supply of doses and offering convenient places for people to be vaccinated and giving workers like civil servants a day off afterwards.

She added the Government would consider scrapping a requirement for some workers to have regular Covid-19 tests if they are fully vaccinated, and civil servants could be given days off after they get a vaccine.

Just over half the vaccines administered so far in Hong Kong have been Pfizer.

Citizens have criticised Ms Lam’s government for blocking refugees from receiving vaccines.

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