With the pandemic going on for one year, people have been patiently waiting for the vaccine to be developed, and now it’s just around the corner. Hong Kong’s government has chosen 3 of the 10+ vaccines that are currently being developed. Carrie Lam has stated in an interview on December 11th of 2020 that these companies will supply 7.5 million coronavirus vaccines to Hong Kong. She also stated that the first batch of vaccines will arrive in January at the earliest ("Virus vaccination drive in pipeline", 2020).
The three companies that the government has chosen are Sinovac Biotech (manufactured in China), BioNTech-Fosun Pharma (manufactured in Europe), and AstraZeneca-Oxford (manufactured in the UK). While Sinovac Biotech has yet to publish their third trial data, BioNTech-Fosun Pharma and AstraZeneca-Oxford have already published theirs. BioNTech-Fosun Pharma has shown a 95% effectiveness in protecting a person from Covid19 while AstraZeneca-Oxford has shown a 62%-90% effectiveness ("COVID-19 Vaccines in Hong Kong: Options, Safety & Costs | AD MediLink", 2021).
However, this first batch of vaccines would most likely be given to the most vulnerable, such as the elderly, the frontline workers, and people with underlying health conditions (Roxby, 2021). Regardless, the introduction of a vaccine would certainly alleviate the tragedy the pandemic has caused, gradually returning humanity to its former state.
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