Should receive two Covid-19 vaccine doses: David Hui

The public should receive two Covid-19 vaccine doses to ensure effectiveness, or else previous efforts would be wasted, government advisor David Hui Shu-cheong said. 

Speaking on a radio programme, Hui said that the effectiveness of vaccines decreases over time. 

He used the BioNTech vaccine as an example. “The third phase of clinical data pointed out that the first dose of vaccine has 82 percent protection against coronavirus in the first week, but the protection rate drops to 52 percent afterwards.” 

He added that the protection rate rises to 95 percent after receiving the second dose.

“If people only received the first dose of vaccines, previous efforts would be wasted,” Hui concluded. 

However, he was uncertain about how long the vaccine antibody would last, so he reminded the public to be aware of personal hygiene after vaccination. 

Hui also emphasized that vaccination does not lower the risk of death. 

“Citizens who have existing health problems would have chances to face natural death,” Hui said. 

As for the anti-epidemic measures, Hui explained that it is necessary to continue the existing measures as more than 20 percent of Covid-19 cases are untraceable.