Pharmacists Urge High-risk Groups To Get Vaccinated

A pharmacists' association on Sunday urged high-risk people to get inoculated against Covid-19 as soon as the vaccines procured by the government become available.

The government has reached agreement to purchase a vaccine produced by mainland firm Sinovac and another by German company BioNtech and mainland firm Fosun, and is in talks to procure a third by Oxford University and AstraZeneca.

It is planning to offer free Covid jabs for the entire city, with priority to be given to vulnerable groups, including the elderly and chronically ill patients, and those deemed to be at high risk of catching the virus, such as staff working in care homes and medical staff.

The first batch of vaccines, produced by mainland firm Sinovac, is expected to arrive in the city as early as next month.

The President of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Hong Kong, William Chui, said it's hard to compare the efficacy or the safety of three vaccines for now because all of them have not completed their clinical trials.

But he said people shouldn't worry too much about the side effects of the new vaccines because early results show that they are similar to those of normal flu vaccines.

“We carefully studied … the interim and also the preliminary report of the vaccines, we found that the common side effects of all three vaccines are very similar. For example, all of them have injection site reaction, fatigue, fever and muscle pain, which are very similar to the influenza vaccines,” he said.

Chui said while there has not been conclusive data about the safety or efficacy of the vaccines, he would still recommend high-risk people to get the jabs as soon as possible, considering that it would probably be more risky for them to not be protected from Covid-19 while local infection figures are high.

He added that lower-risk groups who have concerns about the vaccines could wait a bit longer until they have passed phase three of their clinical trials.

The expert also brushed aside concerns about the quality of the mainland vaccine by Sinovac, saying health officials will make sure that it is safe for use before allowing the public to get vaccinated.