The new coronavirus variant strain Omicron has flowed into the community and spread rapidly. Local cases have reappeared in Hong Kong after "clearing" for several months.
In the face of repeated epidemics, in addition to tightening epidemic prevention measures, vaccination is more urgent.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam said last Tuesday (January 4) that the government will expand the coverage of the "vaccine bubble". From the 24th of next month, citizens who want to enter public places such as restaurants, libraries and schools must be vaccinated for at least one time. If they are still unwilling to accept the vaccine, the public will soon lose access to certain premises.
The government has expanded the coverage of the "vaccine bubble". From the 24th of next month, citizens must receive at least one dose of the vaccine in order to enter restaurants.
(Photo by Deng Yinglin)
Vaccination is the most urgent
Recently, several Cathay Pacific flight attendants went out in violation of regulations during the quarantine period, resulting in the infection of the local Omicron group. The dancing group of a Cathay Pacific flight attendant's mother has continued to expand. According to the tracking, 14 people have been diagnosed or initially diagnosed, while the other side has been infected. , the vaccination rate of the involved group was only 58%, in other words, nearly half of the people were not vaccinated.
Yuan Guoyong, chair professor of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Hong Kong, said last Wednesday (January 5) that since there have been cases of unknown origin in Hong Kong, technically the fifth wave of the epidemic may have begun.
From February 26, 2021, Hong Kong officially started the vaccination program. By January 2022, 73.4% of the eligible population in Hong Kong had been vaccinated for the first dose, and the total number of cumulative vaccine doses had exceeded 10 million doses. See It seems that the herd immunity target that 70% of the population can achieve when vaccinated in the past has been reached, but why is the epidemic still heating up so rapidly when the new variant virus is killed?
73.4% of the eligible population in Hong Kong has been vaccinated for the first dose, and the total number of doses vaccinated has exceeded 10 million.
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In fact, although the overall vaccination rate has reached 70%, the high-risk group of new crown virus infection, the elderly over 70 years old who most need injection protection, the vaccination rate is still less than half, and more than 600,000 people have not been vaccinated.
Yuan Guoyong, Chair Professor of the Department of Microbiology of the University of Hong Kong, Long Zhenbang, Honorary Assistant Professor of the Department of Microbiology of the University of Hong Kong, and Zhao Xiyang, Honorary Lecturer of the Department of Microbiology of the University of Hong Kong jointly wrote an article in Ming Pao. Herd immunity is achieved by injection.
After the emergence of the Delta variant of the virus, the effectiveness of the vaccine declined.
Therefore, more people need to be injected to achieve herd immunity. It is estimated that the requirement is as high as 97.4% to 142.9%. Although the vaccination rate of more than 100% seems to be counterintuitive, it reflects the continuous evolution of the virus, and the first generation of vaccines have not Perfection makes the threshold of herd immunity an "unreachable castle in the air".
With the rapid spread of the current Omicron variant virus, the fifth wave of the epidemic is imminent. The remaining less than 20% of the citizens who have not been vaccinated should be vaccinated as soon as possible as long as there is no contraindication to vaccination.
A single Omicron virus carrier can infect 6 to 10 people.
(Getty)
Arguing about results is pointless
According to a study by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong, compared with the original virus strain of the new coronavirus and the variant strain Delta, the Omicron variant virus strain has 70 times more virus replication after 24 hours of infection in human bronchial tubes.
As the new virus strains continue to accumulate mutations, the basic reproduction number of Omicron has ranged from 6 to 10, that is, an infected person can infect 6 to 10 people, which is much higher than other known new coronavirus strains.
In addition, a team led by Professor Yuan Guoyong of the Department of Microbiology of the University of Hong Kong found that most people who have received two doses of the new crown vaccine, including Fubitai and Kexing, the serum antibody level produced is not enough to resist the Omicron variant virus. This conclusion is again The doubts of many people who have not yet been injected have been raised from "what if there are side effects of injections?" to "do existing vaccines protect Omicron?", "can an additional third injection prevent the infection of new mutant viruses?".
Before answering these questions, we should first clarify why the injection is needed and what the effect of the injection is.
As Yuan Guoyong pointed out, vaccination is never the same as not being infected, and the protection of vaccines is not 100%. However, it has been proved that after vaccination, the disease of infected people will be milder, the time and quantity of infection will be relatively low, and the impact on others will be reduced. become smaller.
Take Israel as an example. After the local large-scale booster vaccination began in July last year, it was found that compared with those who received two injections, the risk of infection was reduced by 11 times and the risk of severe illness was reduced by 20 times.
The T-cell immune barrier created after vaccination and the third booster shot can reduce the chance of being infected by Omicron or other variants of the virus.
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Since the current vaccine is primarily a basic vaccine developed against the prototype strain of the virus, its protection begins to wane four to six months after the completion of two doses.
In other words, the addition of a third dose is to prevent the decrease in antibody concentration over time, which leads to a decline in protection.
The first two injections are mainly to prevent severe illness, and the third injection is to resist the newly emerged variant virus strain.
A recent study by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the University of Melbourne found that Omicron contains more genetic mutations than other variants, and the T-cell immune response that humans use to defend against viruses can still effectively respond to Omicron.
The T-cell immune barrier generated after vaccination and the third booster shot can continue to protect the body and reduce the chance of being infected by Omicron or other mutated viruses.
Vaccination must be carried out to the end
The new variant virus Omicron is on the rise, the global epidemic has deteriorated significantly, and many governments have begun to tighten the previous health pass regulations.
Among them, France has become the 6th country in the world with 10 million confirmed cases. Although nearly 80% of the people have had at least one injection, the number of daily infections is still approaching 300,000. The huge infection base makes the French medical system constantly tends to be saturated.
President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview last Tuesday that it is irresponsible to refuse injections, and that irresponsible people are not French citizens and will piss them off in the future until the epidemic is over.
Three days after Macron's remarks about "tossing people who don't give injections", the French National Assembly passed a bill on Thursday (6th) to convert "health passports" into "vaccine passports", which will enter the Senate for review next week.
The bill stipulates that from January 15, people without injections will not be able to enter public places such as restaurants, theaters and gyms, nor can they be replaced by negative test certificates.
French President Emmanuel Macron said it was irresponsible to refuse injections, and that irresponsible people are not French citizens.
(AP)
As the global epidemic continues to worsen, countries around the world continue to strengthen epidemic prevention regulations.
According to a survey by Oxford University in the United Kingdom, at least 26 countries around the world have successively introduced vaccine passports or similar measures. After the measures were introduced, including Denmark, Israel, Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland, the vaccination rate has recorded a significant increase.
For Hong Kong, where the vaccination rate is at a bottleneck and the injection rate of the elderly is low, the implementation of the "vaccine passport" and the expansion of the "vaccine bubble" are the best solutions to the current predicament.
While maintaining the current epidemic prevention restrictions, the government can gradually expand the scope of the vaccine pass by referring to foreign experience, and cover the places that can only be entered after the injection in stages. As high as 90%, and then to 99% in May, the vaccine bubble can be expanded in an orderly manner.
This will not only increase the number of injections in a short period of time to reduce the number of deaths, but also prepare for smooth customs clearance in the long run.
After all, when we cannot completely eliminate the new crown virus, what we can do is to achieve herd immunity as soon as possible with the help of vaccines, and minimize the impact of the epidemic as much as possible, so that when the new crown specific medicine appears, the people can return to normal as soon as possible Life.