'Personal Touch Needed To Promote Covid Jabs'

A pharmacists’ association on Sunday urged the government to send letters, texts, or even directly call people eligible for its vaccination programme to encourage them to get inoculated, and to assuage concerns about possible side effects.

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Hong Kong said the government should take London’s example in promoting its vaccination plan, ahead of its scheduled launch on Friday.

Its president, William Chui, said while this would take a lot of public resources, it's what the situation calls for.

“The Immigration Department has the database. And also I think sending mail to the priority group is possible, like the Inland Revenue (Department) they send letters to the taxpayers.”

“But of course, it needs a lot of administrative staff. But I think it’s worth to do it, because it is a more proactive way to remind or to encourage Hong Kong people to have the vaccination,” Chui said.

Starting on Tuesday, people in designated priority groups such as the elderly, healthcare workers, or those deemed to provide essential services to Hong Kong, can make online appointments for Covid-19 jabs.

But Chui, whose group previously conducted a survey which found that only around a third of respondents would be willing to get vaccinated, said he thinks public concerns about potential side effects from getting Covid jabs are still overblown – something the government needs to address.

He said authorities should make sure people understand that the vaccines would in mostly cause just mild side effects.

“Hong Kong people are afraid of the very rare side effects like hyper-sensitivity and also the fever, because they don’t know whether the fever is serious or not… but in fact the common side effects, including the fever, is very mild. We’re talking about low-grade fever,” he said.

“I think they’re over-concerned about the side effects.”

Chui said in most cases, people who develop fevers from the jabs would normally recover within a day or two.