Hong Kong's vaccination rate among seniors is picking up now that they are allowed walk-in vaccinations instead of having to register online. That should have been allowed long ago but our government is often reactive, seldom proactive. I prefer the word "senior". The word "elderly" the government uses is demeaning (humiliating). Before the walk-in vaccinations, the overall vaccination rate was ticking up, which means increasing slowly. With seniors vaccinating, the rate may surge, which means to suddenly increase. I hope that will happen. Only about 25 percent of Hong Kong people are fully vaccinated. This problem can be solved if our government is more proactive than reactive.
The word "reactive" means to try to solve something after it has occurred instead of taking action first to prevent it. The word "proactive" means to take action to prevent a problem. The vaccination rate among seniors was very low. The government should have been proactive with a walk-in plan. It is now reactive after seniors complained they didn't know how to register online. Hong Kong's vaccination rate is low partly because the government doesn’t treat the vaccinated differently from the unvaccinated. Many Hong Kong people are either afraid of or don't trust the vaccine. The government should give benefits to the vaccinated to encourage people to get vaccinated.
It should have given the $5,000 spending vouchers to only the vaccinated. Fully vaccinated local residents returning from low-risk countries should not have to quarantine. They should only be required to do a virus test. The government should ignore advice from so-called experts like Dr Leung Chi-Chiu who is against Hong Kong's opening up. He insists gradually returning to normal can be risky even though there have not been any local coronavirus infections in over a month. There is no such thing as zero risk. People crossing the road risk being hit by a car. The coronavirus will not go away. We must learn to live with it like living with the flu as England and some other countries have done.
