Frail Elderly 'shouldn't Get Covid Jabs First'

A health expert said on Monday that the government should avoid giving sick and weak elderly people the coronavirus vaccine developed by BioNTech when the inoculation programme starts in Hong Kong, saying more time is needed to observe its side effects.

Of the vaccines procured by the Hong Kong government, the one produced by BioNTech will be the first to be made available.

The government originally planned to give elderly care home residents the coronavirus vaccines produced by mainland company Sinovac. But the Sinovac jabs cannot be delivered on time, leaving the authorities with no choice but to use the BioNTech vaccine, which was recommended by an expert panel earlier this month for emergency use.

Leung Pak-yin, who is a member of a special task force in charge of the city's coronavirus vaccination programme, said the Sinovac vaccine is reported to cause fever in 3 percent of its recipients, compared with up to 15 percent of those who received the BioNTech jabs.

Leung said it is inappropriate to have very sick or weak elderly people living in care homes to be the first to receive the jabs. Instead, healthy elderly residents should be vaccinated when the inoculation scheme begins to mitigate the risks.

“The operation of care homes will be affected if 10 or 20 percent of their residents have fever," he said.

“In order to be on the safe side, we should consider protecting very sick or weak elderly people using other methods instead of giving them the BioNTech jabs.”

Leung said officials are discussing with operators of elderly care homes, who have expressed their concern over the matter.