'Experts Not Smearing, Just Pointing Out Flaws'

The president of the Public Doctors’ Association hit back at Carrie Lam's accusations that some medical professionals are smearing mainland authorities by criticising the government's Covid-19 testing scheme, saying the experts were merely pointing out the flaws of the exercise.

Speaking on an RTHK radio programme, Arisina Ma said she did not know who exactly the Chief Executive was referring to and that she hasn't seen any remarks from the experts discrediting the central government.

Ma said that people are only discussing the effectiveness of the universal testing scheme and whether the central government's resources are being put to good use, and that people are calling for those limited resources to be used appropriately and not be wasted.

She said she doubted the tests would prove effective given the drop in new cases, and patients who have developed antibodies may be picked up. But she said she won't object to people getting tested.

Ma also reiterated what many in the medical community have said about the scheme, that the government should focus on testing high-risk groups, such as the elderly and residents of care homes where outbreaks have occurred.

The Chief Executive on Tuesday slammed health experts who criticised the universal coronavirus tests saying their statements are politically motivated, and that they were attempting to smear the central government by publicly saying they don't support the scheme.

Some medical professionals had questioned the effectiveness of these universal tests which will be conducted with the help of mainland experts, saying this will not provide any tangible results to contain the outbreak, and some even raised concerns about the possibility of the infections spreading through this mass exercise.

The government's voluntary, universal tests are set to start on September 1 and expected to last two weeks.