The Year of the Tiger has finally arrived, but due to the fifth wave of the epidemic, many citizens have reduced going out to pay New Year greetings and spending, which has dampened the festive atmosphere this year.
In the face of the epidemic that has lasted for two years, the most auspicious words that ordinary citizens want to hear in the New Year are nothing more than "good health".
The epidemic has not passed a day, and we must continue to fight against the virus.
To achieve good health, we must first implement epidemic prevention policies to avoid the next wave of outbreaks.
On the other hand, the epidemic also reflects the importance of medical resources. The public medical resources in Hong Kong have always been insufficient, and the authorities should also use this epidemic to conduct a review.
Strict epidemic prevention must still be adhered to
It has been two years since the outbreak of the epidemic, and many people are tired of the epidemic prevention measures.
Many Western countries have relaxed epidemic control and accepted the reality of "coexisting with the virus".
Some people worry that it is out of date for Hong Kong to continue to strictly prevent the epidemic, and it will even be out of touch with the rest of the world.
These statements are understandable, but from a scientific point of view, Hong Kong has not yet reached the time to relax the epidemic prevention policy to "coexist with the virus", and the strict epidemic prevention policy must still be adhered to for a period of time.
Many Western countries have accepted coexistence with the virus.
There are hundreds of millions of viruses in the natural world. Humans and viruses can be said to have "coexisted" for a long time, but the premise of coexistence is that viruses and humans are in a certain balance, that is, the immunity of humans and the toxicity of viruses (lethality, disease rate, etc.) did not pose a serious threat to the other party.
Once the pathogenicity of the virus clearly threatens human life, it represents an outbreak.
If we have no way to completely eliminate the new coronavirus, coexistence is inevitable in the end, so it is not meaningful to discuss "whether or not to coexist with the virus."
It is important that before coexistence, humans should reduce the toxicity of the virus as much as possible so that it no longer poses a serious health threat to humans.
Although the mutant virus strain Omicron shows a tendency to weaken its virulence, due to the short time since its discovery, our understanding of it has not yet allowed us to judge whether it is the right time to "coexist".
In addition, the more virulent Delta is still spreading widely. For example, the fifth wave of the epidemic in Hong Kong was also infected with the Delta variant.
To weaken the virus as soon as possible, we should get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Scientific experts from all over the world have emphasized that vaccines can reduce symptoms and mortality, if not necessarily completely prevent infection.
And as local experts Yuan Guoyong and others have pointed out, vaccination can force the virus to escape immunity, thereby reducing its toxicity.
Getting a vaccine available as soon as possible will allow us to live with the virus sooner.
Therefore, all walks of life in Hong Kong should put aside all kinds of conspiracy theories about vaccines and get vaccinated as soon as possible, unless doctors advise people who are not suitable for vaccination.
In order to avoid epidemic prevention as soon as possible, we should insist on strict epidemic prevention at the moment.
Still need to improve medical care in the long run
In addition, the epidemic also reminds us of the importance of medical resources.
At the beginning of the outbreak, even the advanced western medical countries were unable to provide sufficient medical support, resulting in a very high fatality rate of the virus at the beginning.
Many of these countries have more medical resources per capita than Hong Kong, which also reflects that Hong Kong may not be able to cope with a full-scale outbreak.
Moreover, the usual medical resources in Hong Kong are not sufficient. Even if the epidemic is over, problems such as long waiting times for public medical care will still exist.
Taking advantage of the outbreak of the epidemic, we should understand the importance of medical care, so as to increase the medical resources in Hong Kong in the long run.
Among medical resources, the shortage of medical manpower in Hong Kong has always been the most serious.
Last year, Hong Kong passed the "Physician Registration (Amendment) Bill 2021", which allows some doctors trained outside Hong Kong to come to Hong Kong to practise in Hong Kong without a practising examination, as a way to expand the medical manpower.
However, this method alone is still difficult to meet the demand. The Hong Kong government should continue to increase resources for local medical training and continue to train more medical personnel for the local area.
The government's latest medical staffing projections estimate it owes 1,610 doctors in 2030 and 1,949 doctors in 2040.
Coupled with an aging population, society must be prepared to invest more resources in medical care.
However, the current fiscal revenue model alone may not be able to support huge medical expenditures. The society should also discuss options that should be considered if more funds are provided for medical care, including tax increases, or a universal health insurance plan.
We hope that "good health" is not just a New Year's greeting, but also that Hong Kong will have enough medical resources to enable Hong Kong people to live a healthy life.
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