Why, in the first three months of this year, hong Kong has killed nearly 6,000 people in the new round of COVID-19 caused by the Olmikron strain, setting a new record for deaths since the outbreak?
Recently, the China CDC Weekly published an article co-authored by cd-control experts from Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, China, and the United States, using straightforward data to illustrate the reasons for this. The experts are from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the University of Hong Kong.
Without further ado, let's go straight to the point:
One of the core points of information given in this article is that between January 6 and March 21 this year, there were 5,906 covid-19 deaths in Hong Kong, the vast majority of which were elderly people over the age of 60, or 5,655 (or 96%). Of them, as many as 3,970 , or 70 percent — have not received a single shot of the vaccine.
As for those who died after one dose of vaccination and two or more doses of vaccine, 1023 (18%) and 662 (12%) were given, respectively.
Therefore, the article points out that if you want to avoid the high death data caused by the new crown epidemic, you must work hard to solve the vaccination work of age-sensitive people such as the elderly.
Next, we will show you some of the specific data listed in this article.
Let's take a look at the following picture of the vaccination of people of different age groups in Hong Kong as of December 23, 2021. From the data from the red-boxed 60+ age group, we can see that the vaccination rate for the elderly over the age of 80 is the lowest in this age group – and even in the entire age group. Only 20 percent of those who had received at least one dose of the vaccine in that age group, fewer than two doses, or only 18 percent, compared with only 2 percent had received booster shots.
In contrast, 65 per cent of 60-69 age groups have received at least one shot, 63 per cent have received at least two shots, and 48 per cent of 70-79 year olds have received at least one shot and 45 per cent have received at least two doses.
So, let's look at the picture of the death data below, from the red box of the elderly group over 60 years old, we can clearly see that between January 6 and March 21 this year, out of a total of 5906 deaths in Hong Kong – and among the 5655 elderly people over 60 years old - as many as 4182 people are the 80-year-old elderly who have the lowest vaccination rate mentioned above, accounting for 70.8%: 3036 of them have not been vaccinated.
In contrast, people in the 60-69 age group, because the vaccination rate is relatively high in the age group over 60 years old, 65% of those who have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 63% of at least two doses, so their death data is also relatively lowest in the age group of 60 years old, with a total of 496 deaths, accounting for 8.5% of all deaths. Of these, 309 died without vaccination, 94 died with one injection, and 93 died with at least two injections.
As vaccination rates among people aged 70-79 years declined (48 per cent for at least one shot and 45 per cent for at least two doses), the death data increased, with a total of 977 deaths, or 16.5 per cent of all deaths. Of these, 625 died without vaccination, 201 died with one injection, and 151 died with at least two injections.
At the same time, these data also show that although the protection of the new crown vaccine will weaken over time, the more complete the new crown vaccine, the more the protective efficacy of the vaccine can be maintained, and the less likely it is to be killed by the new crown pneumonia.
However, even if vaccination rates are highest among people aged 60-69 years and over, this is still not as high as the vaccination rate of about 80% in the 20-29 age group and the 30-59 age group.
In this regard, although the article also noted the problem, it said that it is "not clear" why the vaccination rate of the elderly in Hong Kong is low. However, the article mentions two points of information to be aware of:
1. Previous surveys showed that more than half of the people in Hong Kong society as a whole have insufficient confidence in vaccines, and 56.8% of respondents expressed doubts about vaccination or even resisted vaccination;
2) Previously successful "dynamic zeroing" policies may have led to slackening and reducing the urgency of vaccination for the elderly, and a survey conducted in China between November 2020 and January 2021 also showed that the elderly would only prefer to be vaccinated if they think they are really at high risk or trust the government.
Fortunately, according to the introduction of this article, the Hong Kong government is currently working hard to promote the vaccination of the elderly.
Finally, Geng Zhige would like to say that if someone comes to the conclusion after reading this article that "the original new crown is not terrible, only the elderly who have not been vaccinated in Hong Kong are dead, and we should let go", then such people obviously ignore an important reality.
This reality is that in fact, not only Hong Kong, but also many places in our mainland where the elderly have not yet completed the vaccination work, and some people have not even received a single shot of vaccine. So, if we rush to "let go" or "lie flat" in this situation, then the mainland, with a population of 1.4 billion, is bound to face more staggering death figures than Hong Kong.
At the same time, as we've covered in previous articles (one of the previous reports: Some people in the West are starting to feel wrong...). The new crown virus is still mutating, and the direction of its mutation is not necessarily the desired "more contagious the less toxic" people hope. No, the combination of the new Delta strain and the Aomi Kerong strain last month, the "Delta Kerong" strain, has aroused the vigilance of experts, including the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Gao Fu, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, even used adjectives such as "wolves are really coming" and "gray rhinos" in a Paper in a March to describe the "Delta Kerong" strain with the contagiousness of Omicron and delta toxicity.
Therefore, at present, we must abandon the idea of "lying flat" and "rushing to let go", on the one hand, we must strive to do a good job in epidemic prevention, and on the other hand, we must promote the vaccination and upgrading of vaccines. The war epidemic is still on the way.