Dr Raymond Tso demonstrates a nasal vaccine application in a press briefing, urgeing residents to get their jabs to stay protected against respiratory infections. Photo: Elson LiIt should be mandatory for all schools in Hong Kong to arrange on-campus influenza jabs for students, a government adviser on vaccines has said. Those who refuse to take part should have to explain their decision, he added.
This statement comes after Hong Kong’s health minister, Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau, stepped up pressure on schools to join the city’s flu jab drive, a programme that offers vaccinations free of charge.
Professor Lau Yu-lung, chairman of the Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases, defended the government’s earlier move to name 168 schools that had refused to join an optional vaccine outreach drive.
Lo said schools had an obligation to protect young children.
Some principals had hit out at authorities over the decision.
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The expert said there would be less pressure on the public health system if 70 to 80 per cent of children under six and residents over 65 got their flu vaccinations. Both rates currently only stand at about 47 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively.
Lo warned that six children died during last year’s flu season and had been among 35 severe cases admitted to hospital.
The minister also said the latest data showed the public hospital admission rate for influenza cases had already exceeded the flu season threshold.
Lau suggested signing all schools up for the inoculation programme starting the next academic year instead of allowing voluntary participation. He added schools that opted out of the scheme should have to offer explanations.
Lau said the change would be convenient for parents and would not interfere with anyone’s right to decline a vaccination.
“Parents are allowed to refuse to join the programme. Around 30 per cent of parents refuse to join even if the school has joined the programme,” he said.
The government recently published a list of 168 schools that had declined to participate in its outreach programme offering on-campus flu vaccinations to students. Authorities had already announced the start of the city’s flu season.
Education sector leaders called the list’s publication unfair and said authorities should not publicly condemn schools without first considering their reasons for not joining, especially as the programme was optional.
Lau, also a paediatrician, defended the decision to name schools that had refused to join.
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He said students would be well protected by getting vaccinated. The professor said he also expected the number of flu cases to rise for two to three weeks before figures started declining.
On Saturday, the government said an unvaccinated four-year-old boy was in serious condition and had been admitted to an intensive care unit with influenza and pneumococcal infection. His school had not joined the government’s flu vaccination programme.
Chu Kwok-keung, a lawmaker representing the education sector, also supported requiring schools to provide vaccinations under the scheme and demanding explanations from schools that refused to join.
“It is relatively appropriate and fair,” he said.
But Chu said schools that declined to join the optional programme should not be “negatively labelled” by authorities as parents’ preferences affected the institutions’ decisions.