Posted on 12/15/2020 4:59:39 PM PST by nickcarraway
Hong Kong’s leader on Tuesday (Dec 15) lashed out at rumours claiming the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines from mainland China was politically motivated, saying the acquisition was backed by two expert committees of medical professionals.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor added the government would seek funding approval from lawmakers before Christmas for a fourth round of relief measures targeting those worst affected by the pandemic.
In a weekly press conference before meeting her Executive Council, the city leader confirmed she had still not received any details from the central government about her annual official trip to Beijing , which is typically held this time every year.
But she declined to comment on whether the delay was related to Hong Kong’s struggle with Covid-19 or state leaders’ busy schedules.
“Regarding the chief executive’s duty visit, the arrangement is made by the central [government], which will inform the chief executive, who will then attend the duty visit in Beijing,” she said.
The government would make a public announcement when there were new developments, Lam added.
On the upcoming financial package, a source previously said the level of new government support would be close to the third round’s HK$24 billion (US$3.1 billion), and would be directed at the groups hardest hit by the latest social-distancing measures, some of the toughest of the health crisis.
Lam reiterated that the procurement of vaccines was based solely on prevailing scientific evidence and that the government’s goal was to provide the safest vaccines for the entire Hong Kong population as quickly as possible.
“Just like all our other anti-epidemic works, there was malicious spreading of rumours, people stigmatising and politicising the vaccine procurement, while they quoted unidentified persons with negative comments,” she said on Tuesday.
She said those rumours surfaced in the weekend after the government announced last Friday that agreements had been reached to secure 7.5 million shots from mainland-based Sinovac Biotech. The messages she referred to described the procurement as a political decision made for the benefit of mainland or individual companies.
Lam added the government arrived at the decision after referring to expert views from two scientific committees under the Department of Health, while pointing to the differences between Covid-19 and flu vaccine procurement.
“The competition for Covid-19 vaccines between countries is keen,” she said.
“The purpose of signing advance purchase agreements is to reserve in advance vaccines which have a higher chance of success for the public, notwithstanding that the vaccines are still in the development process and have yet to obtain approval from the relevant local regulatory authorities.”
Lam added: “We will analyse the statistics once they are ready, and would permit emergency uses afterwards, so that people can get the injection soon.”
In an overnight statement on Tuesday, the government said the decision on vaccine procurement was based on safety, efficacy, quality and supply considerations, and did not in any way involve political factors.
Apart from reaching an agreement with Sinovac Biotech, which is to supply a million doses next month, the government has ordered another 7.5 million shots from Pfizer-BioNTech.
The Pfizer vaccine aims to distribute one million jabs in the first quarter of next year, via the mainland’s Fosun Pharma. A third deal with AstraZeneca, also involving 7.5 million shots, is in the works.
An insider previously told the Post that Sinovac Biotech was chosen at least in part because the government needed to consider the potential blowback from the pro-establishment camp if it did not pick a mainland producer.
But Professor Gabriel Leung, dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Hong Kong, who along with other experts advises officials on vaccine selection, said the city largely made the right call, and had based its decision on scientific and commercial factors.
Leung said Sinovac deserved its place as it had shown promising first and second trial data, which had been peer-reviewed and published in respected journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases .
Fellow government adviser Professor David Hui Shu-cheong, from Chinese University, also threw his weight behind the government’s decision, saying scientific and logistical reasoning was followed.
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