As you have noticed, I have not been commenting on Covid-19 recently, as there is so much in the press, and not so much different for me to say. However, the Department of Health has announced to doctors that the vaccinating will start in February, having finally received vaccines last week.
Vaccines will be administered at 29 community vaccination centres across Hong Kong’s 18 districts, also in private practice and facilities for the elderly & disabled.
< GOVERNMENT FIVE PRIORITY GROUPS >
Ø Health workers,
Ø Aged 60 and older,
Ø Residents and staff of elderly and disabled care homes,
Ø People providing essential public services, such as the disciplined forces,
Ø Postal staff and hygiene workers,
Ø Cross-border transport workers, including truck drivers, air & sea crew, and fishermen.
VACCINATING IN MY OFFICE
I shall be happy to vaccinate on a ‘first come first serve’ basis. The three vaccines are as listed below, although I am unsure which will be available to me first – most likely Sinovac. I personally will take this as I like the ‘old fashioned’ or ‘tried and tested’ manufacturing technique. At my office the choice will be Sinovac or Astra -Zeneca. Please contact us to be added to booking list.
Please let us know if you’d like us to order you a vaccine,
so we can add you to our waiting list.
We will contact you further once we have information on
pricing & exact availability dates.
An Update on Vaccines for Covid-19
The following vaccinations have been sourced by the Hong Kong government…
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine
(Available in H.K. in the next few weeks)
This is an mRNA vaccine. The vaccine must be stored at very low temperatures (-70), so it’s likely the Government will give these from designated centers in the community. 2 shots taken 21 days apart. Over 90% effective. This is not suitable for people with ‘significant allergy’.
Messenger RNA (mRNA) is found in all living cells. These strands of genetic code act as chemical intermediaries between the DNA and protein producers. The vaccine is like a cookery recipe, injecting it into your arm is simply giving specific information to your cells and letting them read it. Your cells expertly assemble the tiny part of the Spike protein from ingredients they already have. After this, the immune system quickly goes after the spike protein fragment, learning to build up a defense against the coronavirus, should it ever encounter it.
Because we don’t normally have mRNA encoding Spike protein floating around in our cells, after we tip off our immune system, the mRNA from the vaccine is destroyed by the cell after its ‘instructions’ are read. Experts believe that mRNA isn’t the same as DNA, and it can’t combine with our DNA to change our genetic code. mRNA never even goes into the nucleus, the part of the cell contains all of your own DNA.
Information from U.S. CDC website: ‘Viral vector vaccines use a modified version of a different virus (the vector) to deliver important instructions to our cells. For COVID-19 viral vector vaccines, the vector (not the virus that causes COVID-19, but a different, harmless virus) will enter a cell in our body and then use the cell’s machinery to produce a harmless piece of the virus that causes COVID-19. Scientists began creating viral vectors in the 1970s. Besides being used in vaccines, viral vectors have also been studied for gene therapy, to treat cancer, and for molecular biology research. For decades, hundreds of scientific studies of viral vector vaccines have been done and published around the world. Some vaccines recently used for Ebola outbreaks have used viral vector technology, and a number of studies have focused on viral vector vaccines against other infectious diseases such as Zika, flu, and HIV. Viral vectors cannot cause infection with COVID-19 or with the virus used as the vaccine vector.
Sinovac Biotech
(Currently available in H.K.)
Widespread use easier, as this vaccine will be able to be stored in a normal fridge.
2 shots taken 14 days apart. Effectiveness is up to 78%. However, this is not suitable for pregnant women.
Oxford-AstraZeneca
(Available In H.K. after summer)
This is a viral vector vaccine (made from dead virus) using an engineered adenovirus.
2 shots taken 28 days apart and can be storage in normal fridge, easier to transport and use.
Other available information for different COVID-19 vaccines include:
Johnson & Johnson: This is the adenovirus 26 vector. single dose. The efficacy is 66% against symptomatic lab-confirmed COVID-19 including all levels of severity. Easier storage.
Moderna: mRNA vaccine, 2 doses taken 28 days apart. The efficacy range is from 89.3 to 98.6%. The trial size is 30351, this requires to be stored at -20 degrees.
Novavax: 2 doses taken 21 days apart. This vaccine showed lower effectiveness over the South African
Gamaleya Institute: 2 doses taken 21 days apart. Pending more information, efficacy is 91.4% against COVID-19 21 days after first dose.

Covid-19 Vaccination