Unused Shots Pile Up as Mistrust Blights Hong Kong Vaccine Drive By Iain Marlow and Felix Tam 10 May 2021 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...hts-hong-kong-vaccine-drive?srnd=premium-asia Public distrust means even frontline medical workers shy away Govt trying new incentives like lowered quarantine requirement Members of staff transport medical materials to a community vaccination center administering the BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in Hong Kong, China, on April 5. Photographer: Chan Long Hei/Bloomberg There are few places in the world easier to get a Covid-19 vaccine than Hong Kong....... ......The situation is making Hong Kong a conspicuous global outlier. While supply still lags demand in most developed economies, Hong Kong is seeing the reverse, fueled by a near breakdown of communication between the government and population..... .....What makes the dynamic harder to resolve in Hong Kong is a deeper well of mistrust stemming from unprecedented street protests in 2019 as well as a subsequent crackdown by Beijing and local authorities that has eroded key political freedoms...... ........With political distrust permeating through every sphere of Hong Kong life, some see a refusal to heed government calls to take the vaccine as a form of resistance -- particularly as Covid-19 restrictions and the national security law means forms of dissent have mostly been snuffed out. “I won’t take the vaccine, because my friends and I just don’t want to follow any instructions or recommendations from the government,” said a 16-year-old student who gave her surname as Chau. “I don’t trust anything from them. We’ll do our best to resist and fight against the government in the way we still can.”..... .....“The government keeps saying those cases of abnormal side effects have no clinical evidence to indicate that they are caused by the vaccine -- that may be a fact,” Chan said. “However it’s not convincing enough for residents to believe this argument from the government’s mouth.”....