'Severe Side Effects After Vaccination Are Rare'

A government advisor on Covid-19 vaccination on Saturday again played down concerns over the safety of the Covid vaccines, saying the percentage of people experiencing severe side effects after vaccination is low.

Professor Ivan Hung, the convenor of an expert committee looking at adverse events after vaccination, said there have been only three severe cases out of more than three million jabs administered.

He said two patients received the BioNTech vaccine, while one received the Sinovac vaccine.

The expert also said the committee had examined around three hundred reported cases of adverse events following vaccination and experts believe about thirty percent might be linked to vaccination.

“The number is, I think, quite compatible with the rest of the world, in terms of the adverse events. Very important is that the majority of these adverse events are relatively mild, and the recovery rate is very high, especially in terms of Bell’s palsy and other incidents,” Hung said.

Professor Hung also said that to maintain the transparency of the committee’s reporting mechanism, it plans to release a summary of people suffering severe side effects following vaccination every week.

He said they would focus on the most severe cases, including conditions like Bell's palsy and, for adolescents, myocarditis - and on any fatalities.

In early June, the expert committee had decided not to make public the deaths of those who have recently had a jab. But Hung announced a U-turn last week, saying they realised people were very concerned about relevant transparency, and he hoped the "minor changes" would alleviate such concerns.

He also said the government’s Covid vaccine indemnity fund had approved three applications for compensation totalling HK$450,000, involving patients suffering from side effects after receiving Sinovac jabs.