Covid-19: Millions Refuse Free Vaccines Over Mistrust in Hong Kong

Millions of people are refusing free Covid-19 shots in Hong Kong, partly due to government mistrust. Bloomberg's Iain Marlow explains the city’s vaccine hesitancy.

There are few places in the world easier to get a Covid-19 vaccine than Hong Kong. Shots are free and available to everyone over the age of 16. Bookings are made via an easy-to-use government website and people can be in and out of the 29 vaccination centers dotted throughout the city in 20 minutes. They even get a choice between two shots - a Chinese-made one from Sinovac Biotech Ltd., or the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that’s the most effective in the world.

Most people, however, are choosing not to get vaccinated.

According to Bloomberg data, enough doses have been administered to cover 11.6% of a population of 7.5 million since late February. That’s behind leading places like the U.K., at 39.7% and Singapore at 19.4%, where available doses are so in demand that most of the adult population has not yet been granted access. In Hong Kong, so many shots are languishing that the government has warned people that some will expire in September. On Sunday, vaccine appointment bookings dropped to their lowest in a month, with just 2,100 taking the Sinovac shot and 6,800 receiving the BioNTech jab.

The situation is making Hong Kong a conspicuous global outlier. While other developed economies with strong vaccine supplies such as Germany, the U.K. or the U.S. see vaccine reluctance as a challenge to overcome later in their inoculation drives, Hong Kong has faced skepticism from the start, fueled by a breakdown of communication between the unpopular, unelected government and population.

The slow uptake is likely to further delay the city’s return to normalcy, and undermine its attractiveness as a business hub amid signs of an exodus of expatriates and locals alike. Hong Kong Monetary Authority Chief Executive Eddie Yue said the city’s low vaccination rate could make international firms question whether to set up base here.

Vaccine reluctance has been generally higher in the Asia-Pacific region, where early containment success has meant that people don’t fear Covid-19 as much. Hong Kong has seen less than 12,000 cases and 210 deaths since the pandemic began, while peers like Taiwan, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia have been similarly less-affected by the pandemic.

What makes the dynamic harder to resolve in Hong Kong is a deeper well of mistrust stemming from unprecedented street protests in 2019 as well as a subsequent crackdown by Beijing and local authorities that has eroded key political freedoms.

With political distrust permeating through every sphere of Hong Kong life, some see a refusal to heed government calls to take the vaccine as a form of resistance -- particularly as Covid-19 restrictions and the national security law means forms of dissent have mostly been snuffed out.

“I won’t take the vaccine, because my friends and I just don’t want to follow any instructions or recommendations from the government,” said a 16-year-old student who gave her surname as Chau. “I don’t trust anything from them. We’ll do our best to resist and fight against the government in the way we still can.”

Elaine Tsui, a lecturer in health psychology at Hong Kong Baptist University, said that vaccine hesitation is driven by three psychological factors: convenience, complacency and confidence. In the city, getting a shot is convenient but there’s high complacency due to the perception that Covid-19 doesn’t present a significant health threat to residents. Yet where the population stands out is in confidence -- or the lack of it, she said.

To stoke interest in vaccinations, the government has relaxed social distancing rules for vaccinated people, allowing them to visit bars and gather in bigger groups at restaurants. A travel bubble with Singapore scheduled for the end of the month will also only be opened to vaccinated Hong Kong residents.

Those measures haven’t boosted vaccination takeup significantly. After an initial one-day bounce, bookings have stayed flat for both types of vaccines.

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