'Govt Must Address Public Concerns About Flu Jabs'

The Medical Association on Friday urged the administration to do more to reassure parents that flu vaccines used in Hong Kong are safe, after deaths in South Korea and Taiwan involving people who had received jabs left some Hongkongers reluctant to vaccinate their children.

Dr Choi Kin, the association's president, said there's no evidence so far to suggest that the vaccines used here have caused adverse effects and the government needs to do more to get the message out.

"The flu vaccine, especially the one from Sanofi, has been proved to be fairly safe. At least the Hospital Authority has declared that it has used over 200,000 doses without any side-effects," he said.

"If [the government] has done enough, the parents wouldn’t be so alarmed that they reject the vaccination," Choi added.

Separately, the association called on the government to test people who are exempted from quarantine after arriving in Hong Kong, to prevent a fourth wave of Covid-19 outbreak.

"The government is not doing very much about this idea because last time it took the third wave for them to remove the sailors from the exempted list. Now I am not sure they will do anything else, but we need to speak out for the public," Choi said.

He also said there shouldn’t be any further relaxation of social distancing measures for the time being, citing recent cases with unknown sources.