HKU Expert: Vaccines Safe But HK Must Wait

A University of Hong Kong public health expert says extensive testing shows that new coronavirus vaccines being pressed into emergency use overseas are safe and effective, though he doesn't expect Hong Kong to have jabs available until at least April.

Benjamin Cowling, co-director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control at the University of Hong Kong, said the approval process was robust enough despite a short timescale.

"The approval process is very strict even for emergency approvals, and for Covid vaccines it's clear that the benefits far outweigh the risks," Cowling told RTHK's Mike Weeks on Monday.

"Of course we need more data, especially long-term data, on these vaccines. But what we've seen so far these vaccines are extremely effective and extremely safe, so really we do need them as soon as possible."

Britain is due to begin rolling out the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Tuesday after approving it last week. The United States is expected to approve the vaccine as well as one from Moderna this week.

"Even if we did an emergency approval now I don't think we'd be able to get the vaccines now," Cowling added, citing reports that vaccines were unlikely to arrive in the SAR until April or May next year.

"I don't think we particularly need to wait to see what happens in other places in the world because we know what's going to happen: once the vaccine starts being used in large quantities then they can get back to normal."