Hong Kong's Vaccine Guinea Pig

Tam Yiu-chung speaking with Starry Lee today on Facebook

Possibly the first Hongkonger to get a vaccine is Tam Yiu-chung, the sole local delegate to the National People's Congress Standing Committee. He is currently in Beijing for NPCSC meetings and got the Sinopharm jab there, which so far has 79 percent efficacy.

In a Facebook live broadcast, Tam told Starry Lee Wai-king, chairperson of the pro-Beijing DAB party that he will take the second dose in about two to four weeks' time and he can get it either in the Chinese capital or Shenzhen.

Sinopharm's vaccine has 79 percent effectiveness

Interesting he was able to access Facebook since it's banned on the mainland. 

Nevertheless, Tam reported he felt find so far and didn't have any side effects.

In Beijing he asked the central government to quickly distribute mainland vaccines to Hongkongers. The Hong Kong government has procured vaccines from another Chinese manufacturer, Sinovac (that has only 50 percent effectiveness), BioNTech, and AstraZeneca.

What is the point of rushing vaccines to Hong Kong when a recent survey found only about 37 percent of residents were keen to get the jab?  

A lot of it has to do with distrust in the government, not in the speed at which the vaccines will arrive in Hong Kong. We're in no hurry to get the vaccine yet and would rather wait for more data to come out and be analyzed.

The Sinovac vaccine is only 50 percent effective

So how about Tam passing this word along to the NPC standing committee?

In the meantime we will watch him carefully for any side effects from the vaccine he hasn't reported yet...