105064
  • Log in
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

The Myth of the Hong Kong Covid Disaster

by Will Jones
17 March 2022 7:00 AM

Covid alarmists are reporting on the situation in Hong Kong, claiming it proves them right in the measures they have backed over the past two years.

The latest reports are of overflowing morgues and a shortage of coffins. Here’s the report from MailOnline.

Morgues in Hong Kong are overflowing with bodies after a deadly Covid wave has forced workers in hazmat suits to dump corpses in shipping containers. 

Workers in full PPE gear were seen moving bodies covered in black tarpaulin from a truck into rows of shipping containers outside Fu Shan Public Mortuary on Wednesday.  

Hong Kong has recorded nearly a million infections and more than 4,600 deaths less than three months after the highly transmissible Omicron variant broke through. 

The bulk of the deaths has been from the city’s unvaccinated elderly population.  

A funeral industry representative told local media the soaring death toll had seen a crunch in the city’s coffins supply, with only 300 remaining and expected to be gone by the weekend.

Leader Carrie Lam acknowledged the supply issues during a press conference Wednesday, and said two more shipments of coffins will arrive in Hong Kong from the mainland soon.

The shocking images come just five days after bodies were seen lying abandoned on stretchers next to living patients in a Hong Kong hospital.   

A medic working at the hospital told Hong Kong Free Press the photo was taken inside the Accident & Emergency ward of Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong and circulated on Friday.

The photo, reportedly taken in early March, showed six body bags lying on stretchers as bed-bound patients struggled to prop themselves up. 

Here are the pictures of shipping containers being used for bodies and bodies stored in bags on wards – presumably largely a consequence of strict Covid protocols that require those infected with Covid and the bodies of those who die with it to be kept separate from others.

The response to the situation from Covid alarmists has been both predictable and wrong.

Dr. Julian Tang, Honorary Associate Professor and Clinical Virologist at the University of Leicester, says it’s because not enough people were vaccinated with a good enough vaccine. Criticising the CoronaVac (Sinovac) vaccine for producing “no detectable neutralisation of Omicron”, he says: “Ideally, Hong Kong needs to boost or vaccinate all their citizens with the mRNA vaccines to better control the spread of Omicron.” Has Dr. Tang failed to notice that highly vaccinated countries like Israel and the U.K. have suffered at least as many Omicron infections as elsewhere? It’s incredible that scientists are still peddling the myth that the vaccines prevent or control the spread of COVID-19.

Dr. Adam Kucharski, an epidemiologist and modeller at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, took to Twitter to claim that the situation proved him right: “Given current situation in Hong Kong, it’s astonishing that there’s anyone still out there who thinks that not taking Covid seriously in 2020-21 would have worked out fine. [Hong Kong] is a reminder of what happens when there’s a large epidemic in a still susceptible population – so large epidemics in countries pre-vaccination wouldn’t have ended well.”

Given current situation in Hong Kong, it's astonishing that there's anyone still out there who thinks that not taking COVID seriously in 2020-21 would have worked out fine… 1/ https://t.co/lT1zJjUmAv

— Adam Kucharski (@AdamJKucharski) March 14, 2022

The reality, though, is that Hong Kong’s Omicron wave has been dropping fast for 10 days now, and deaths will likely follow shortly. Note that unlike cities in China, Hong Kong has not been locked down, and a ban on gatherings of more than two is only being brought in now (why do politicians bring in extreme measures when infections are dropping?), meaning lockdown can’t be credited with putting the outbreak into reverse.

Deaths in the city have admittedly been very high for the region, as the comparison to South Korea shows. However, the death count per million is still a long way short of the U.K.’s. The chart below also shows that the trajectory has been similar to the U.K.’s winter 2020-21 wave, albeit smaller and shorter. We don’t have excess mortality data for Hong Kong so don’t know the impact on the overall level of deaths.

If the city’s morgue’s are overwhelmed and coffin supplies depleted then there may be an in-built capacity problem, as the U.K., along with many European countries, had a proportionally larger wave in winter 2020-21 without suffering similar logistical problems.

Why is Hong Kong suffering a wave of deaths worse than its neighbours? The main suggestion is that it’s because only 30% of the city’s over-80s were double vaccinated ahead of the Omicron wave, plus the poor efficacy (particularly against Omicron) of the CoronaVac (Sinovac) vaccine. The data show that 70% of deaths have been in the over-80s (around 60% in care homes) and 90% of deaths were not double vaccinated (though that means 10% of deaths were double vaccinated, quite high given just 30% of the over-80s are double vaccinated).

The vaccine explanation is plausible. However, the most important factor is surely the presence of a susceptible elderly population, plus Hong Kong being one of the world’s most densely populated places. The city has also been vaccinating during the outbreak, which evidence indicates contributes to driving the spread. Despite this, the death toll is, as noted, smaller than the U.K. winter 2020-21 wave. The fact that infections are dropping now shows once again that lockdowns are not necessary for this to happen. Vaccinating the elderly population with a more effective vaccine may well have prevented many of the recent deaths, but that doesn’t mean lockdowns were justified or there is value in vaccinating the low-risk population. Hong Kong is not the disaster the Covid alarmists are making it out to be, and it certainly does not vindicate the extreme measures of the past two years.

Tags: Covid deathsHong KongOmicron VariantReported infectionsSouth KoreaVaccine efficacyVaccines

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

News Round-Up

Next Post

And Finally…

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

56 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

 

DONATE

PODCAST

Nick Dixon and Toby Young Talk About Trump’s Arrest, the Police’s Preference for Wokery Over Free Speech and the Glorious Implosion of the SNP

by Will Jones
21 March 2023
2

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editors Picks
sheepsinmasks.jpg

Is There No Cure For Maskaholics?

23 March 2023
by Jeffrey H. Anderson

News Round-Up

24 March 2023
by Will Jones

The Big Questions That Weren’t Answered by the Telegraph’s Lockdown Files

24 March 2023
by Dr David Livermore

40% of Brits Still Wearing Masks and Taking Covid Tests as Experts Call for New Mask Mandate Amid Rise in Infections

23 March 2023
by Will Jones

Piers Morgan’s ‘Apology’ is Hollow

24 March 2023
by Dr Roger Watson

Piers Morgan’s ‘Apology’ is Hollow

43
sheepsinmasks.jpg

Is There No Cure For Maskaholics?

42

The Big Questions That Weren’t Answered by the Telegraph’s Lockdown Files

36

40% of Brits Still Wearing Masks and Taking Covid Tests as Experts Call for New Mask Mandate Amid Rise in Infections

69

News Round-Up

27

The Dumbing Down of Universities by Making Them ‘Inclusive’ Undermines Their Purpose

24 March 2023
by Dr David McGrogan
sheepsinmasks.jpg

Is There No Cure For Maskaholics?

23 March 2023
by Jeffrey H. Anderson

When Anders Tegnell Stood Alone

23 March 2023
by Will Jones

IPCC’s Increasingly Shrill Climate Armageddon Fantasies Gain Little Traction in Media

23 March 2023
by Chris Morrison

When Will They Ever Learn?

22 March 2023
by Thorsteinn Siglaugsson

POSTS BY DATE

March 2022
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  
« Feb   Apr »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Please note: To be able to comment on our articles you'll need to be a registered donor

Already have an account?
Please click here to login Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment