Govt To List Out Who Shouldn't Get Covid Jabs

The government is set to release guidelines on various groups of people who should not take coronavirus vaccines, sources tell RTHK, at a time of growing scepticism about the safety and efficacy of the jabs.

RTHK understands that the guidelines, mainly devised by the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, will recommend that doctors advise against jabs for patients with abnormal blood pressure or blood sugar levels, as well as those with various chronic illnesses.

A local media report suggests that smokers could also be warned they are not suitable to take the vaccines.

Under the government's Covid-19 vaccination programme, which began late last month, residents can currently choose between a vaccine made by China's Sinovac, or one produced by German firm BioNTech.

Sinovac has not released as much information about its vaccine as other drugmakers, and the SAR government eventually decided to waive a requirement for the firm to publish data from late-stage clinical trials in a medical journal before the jab could be approved for emergency use.

The BioNTech vaccine, on the other hand, has been found to be safe and effective in people with various medical conditions, according to the World Health Organisation.

"This includes hypertension, diabetes, asthma, pulmonary, liver or kidney disease, as well as chronic infections that are stable and controlled," it says.

University of Hong Kong microbiologist Ho Pak-leung said the government's guidelines are needed given that there is insufficient data regarding how Sinovac vaccines work on chronically ill patients and people aged 60 and above.

He also said the government should step up its efforts to promote the vaccines, or the SAR could see repeated coronavirus outbreaks if too few people have antibodies against the virus.

Reports of deaths and hospitalisations involving people who had received the Sinovac jab have scared-off some residents, despite the authorities saying they don't believe the jabs were responsible for the incidents.

Although the BioNTech vaccine is being widely used overseas, with priority often given to the elderly and people with pre-existing medical conditions, pro-Beijing figures recently suggested that it is not as safe as the Sinovac jab.

They claimed that this is because the German jab was produced using new technologies, while the Chinese vaccine was created in the traditional way, using an inactivated form of the virus.