Hong Kong's Unbelievable Covid Numbers
What's Behind These Crazy Covid Numbers?
Would you believe that by Wednesday, Hong Kong (a city state of 7.5 million people) will have more reported Covid deaths than China (a nation of 1.4 billion)?!
I don't mean Covid Deaths per Capita. I mean the actual total number of Covid deaths. I wouldn't believe it either.
I don't have any faith in the numbers coming out of China, but I'm willing to trust the Hong Kong numbers a little more. (even if the city state is under much greater Chinese control these days...)
Still the numbers coming out of Hong Kong are truly eye popping. Beginning earlier this year the city has been hit with a wave of Covid cases much like the rest of that region.
But unlike their neighbors, Hong Kong has seen a large wave a Covid deaths to go with it. Their number of daily reported Covid deaths is unlike anything seen since the earliest days of the pandemic. Compare it to other counties of similar size from around the world:
Moreover, it’s the single highest daily Covid death rate among all countries over one million population for the entire duration of the pandemic!
Luckily the Omicron wave is so fast moving it'll likely be a very short intense spike. But it still stands out starkly among the region:
As for why Hong Kong is seeing so much more death than its neighbors in East Asia/Oceania, I'm not entirely sure. I certainly am not ruling out that this is simply a ploy by the Chinese to excuse the need for greater central government control in the city using this Covid wave as the excuse. The Chinese government has already stepped in to set up quarantine camps in the city:
In addition, China has imposed a lockdown in the neighboring city of Shenzhen.
If China has been looking for a excuse to pivot from their Zero Covid charade, being able to blame Hong Kong and thus seive greater control over the city state might just be the perfect opportunity.
That all said, if we take the numbers coming out of Hnog Kong at face value, is there any reasonable explaination for why their death total is so high?
I did find one interesting observation: While Hong Kong has a similar vaccination rate to the rest of its neighbors and greater than the US or Europe.
It's who is vaccinated that may be different:
While 91% of the age 12+ population has had at least one dose of the Covid vaccine, that number falls to just 54% for those 80+ who represent over 70% of all the recorded Covid deaths even though they are just 5% of the population!
60 and 70 year olds in Hong Kong also have lower vaccination rates than the working age adult population, and there are estimated to be fewer unvaccinated adults aged 20 to 59 than there are unvaccinated 80+ year olds in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong uses the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine, but also the Sinovac Covid vaccine, developed by China, which is approved for those age 3 and up. In Hong Kong 53% of 3 to 11 year olds have already taken at least one dose, the same as 80+!
So, essentially, instead of focussing their vaccination campaign on the elderly who actually needed it, they focused on making sure every working age adult and every child took a vaccine whether they needed it or not!
This shows the hubris and complacency of the Zero Covid lie, as well as the futility of Covid vaccine mandates. Hong Kong, like nearly all of East Asia, thought they could keep Covid at bay indefinitely, and that if they vaccinated a certain proportion of the population they could eliminate the virus for good.
Instead, Covid made it's inevitable breakthrough and the city wasn't prepared for it. It's difficult to know for certain to what degree this undervaccination of the elderly has hurt Hong Kong, and it’s highly doubtful that undervaccination alone accounts for the current situation, but it certainly hasn't helped. What is certain, is that forcing the healthy, working aged adult population to get the Covid vaccine did nothing to stop it.
Anyway 0 and 2...