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[New Coronary Pneumonia] The government should speed up the procurement of vaccines

2020-12-04T23:49:08.077Z


The global epidemic is severe, and the vaccine may be able to solve all the worries with one shot. At present, the vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech of Germany (hereinafter referred to as Pfizer Vaccine) and the American Modena vaccine are the first to run, and the third phase of clinical trials has been announced


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Written by: Commentary Editing Room

2020-12-04 07:00

Last update date: 2020-12-04 07:00

The global epidemic is severe, and the vaccine may be able to solve all the worries with one shot.

At present, the vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech of Germany (hereinafter referred to as Pfizer Vaccine) and the American Modena Vaccine are the first to run, and the third phase of clinical trials has achieved good results. The latest effective rate has reached more than 90%, and these two types have been booked Vaccines in the United Kingdom and the United States will begin to provide injections this month.

The neighboring Macau also expressed good news on Wednesday (2nd) that emergency vaccines will be available this month.

However, apart from saying that the Hong Kong government will "speed up the approval process", no concrete progress has been seen, which makes people worry that the situation is lagging behind others.

Compared with the United Kingdom and the United States that can start vaccination this month, the progress of vaccination in Hong Kong is not so exciting.

The Director of the Food and Health Bureau, Chen Zhaoshi, only quoted the WHO's earlier statement on Wednesday, stating that next year's vaccine supply will be limited, and large-scale vaccination will be available in the middle and late next year.

Officials have repeatedly emphasized the adoption of a "two-pronged" strategy, including submitting a letter of intent to the "COAVX" mechanism led by the World Health Organization to book a new type of pneumonia vaccine that accounts for 35% of Hong Kong's population, and planning to purchase three vaccines to cover the remaining 65% of Hong Kong's population.

However, the former is a global vaccine plan that guarantees health and equity, and the speed of implementation is difficult to compare with that of countries rushing to order vaccines from pharmaceutical factories in advance, and the government of the latter has not explained the specific process.

The picture is a photo provided by Pfizer in October 2020, showing the freezers used to store vaccines at the vaccine production facility in Michigan, USA.

(Reuters)

Lin Zhengcai: Vaccines like futures

The Food and Health Bureau responded to media enquiries and stated that it was unable to provide relevant information because it had signed confidentiality agreements with different vaccine manufacturers.

But at least in the signed agreements announced by the two pharmaceutical companies that ran out this time, it can be seen that the Hong Kong government has not purchased from them.

Until December, after the United Kingdom and the United States confirmed that the first batch of vaccines could be vaccinated this month, there was no specific news about the Hong Kong government’s vaccine order. It only stated that “the initial idea is to allow all citizens of Hong Kong to be vaccinated free of charge. Vaccinations for other high-risk groups are expected to involve 3 million people."

At the same time as the Hong Kong government’s conservative and confidential vaccine ordering strategy, the United States has booked Pfizer for tens of millions of doses. The United Kingdom can start vaccination this month. The European Union has also secured Pfizer’s 200 million doses order with an additional 1 Billion doses of agreement.

These regions are not only expected to be vaccinated this year, but their orders have already accounted for 67% of Pfizer’s production by the end of 2021, and purchase agreements have been signed with Pfizer, including Canada, Japan and New Zealand.

As for the other Modena vaccine that ran out, it also signed supply agreements with the United States, the European Union, Canada, the Middle East and other regions, accounting for a large amount of production.

As early as July, Executive Council member Lin Zhengcai used "buying futures" as a metaphor for vaccine procurement, reminding the Hong Kong government that if it is too conservative or may not be able to buy vaccines due to late orders, it will indirectly extend the duration of the epidemic. .

In contrast to the Hong Kong government’s worries about "what to do with oversupply," the Canadian government has stated that it will donate through COAVX.

It can be seen that there are two different strategies that not only allow Canada to get the vaccine faster, it is also more likely to become a role that is able to give roses to others with a lingering fragrance, while the Hong Kong government appears conservative and hesitant.

The picture is a photo provided by Pfizer, showing the vaccine production process at the vaccine production facility in Michigan, USA.

(Reuters)

Singapore and Macau are more active

Perhaps the Hong Kong government believes that as a small economy, it has limited bargaining power in vaccine procurement, but just like Singapore, which is also a small place, although it has not placed an order with Pfizer, it has tried to negotiate.

Or the Hong Kong government believes that the epidemic in Hong Kong is not serious compared to other countries and regions, so it is not so active in vaccine procurement.

However, Macau, where the epidemic situation is more stable, also knows that epidemic prevention measures cannot completely solve the problem, and vaccination is the basis for opening up and restarting the economy.

Therefore, at the end of this month, Macau has also been able to vaccinate high-risk frontline personnel such as medical staff and firefighters, and the 1.4 million doses of vaccines that have been negotiated will be available in the first half of next year.

It can be seen that in terms of vaccine procurement, whether the government is active or not has nothing to do with its own size or severity of the epidemic.

Whether the vaccine is free to be vaccinated and who should be vaccinated first is a matter of public concern. However, the government must also review the procurement strategy and progress, and explain the next step to the public.

Vaccination must consider "distributive justice"

[New Coronary Pneumonia] Vaccine Discovery Dawn, Government Should Deploy Early

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New Coronary Pneumonia Vaccine New Coronary Vaccine Pfizer 01 Viewpoint

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2020-12-04

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