Health academics consulted by Lusa consider that the low vaccination rate in Macau is related to the habituation to a ‘new normal’, but also to the distrust of vaccines in a SAR that has never experienced a community outbreak.
Initiated almost four months ago, the local free vaccination plan allows residents to choose between two vaccines and there is no shortage of available doses. However, the results have been very bleak and even the government has admitted that Macau could be in an “embarrassing situation” : only about 10 per cent of the population received both doses.
More than a year ago, the situation was the opposite: Macau, one of the first places to register the first cases, was considered a success story in the world, controlled the borders, tracked suspected cases, imposed heavy mandatory quarantines on all who returned, made masks available to the entire population at a unit price of fewer than MOP1, and their use was, and continues to be, almost widespread.
This recipe proved to be a success as Macau has detected only 51 cases since the start of the pandemic, not having registered any local outbreaks or infections among health professionals.
“The false security comes not only from the fact that there is no community infection in Macau but also from the fact that there is a relatively low infection rate in mainland China since the government took control of the situation last year”, explained to Lusa, anthropologist and health researcher Loretta Lou.
“The people of Macau obey the use of masks and social distancing because these measures are reflected in their lay knowledge of public hygiene and their previous experience with the SARS epidemic”, which between 2002 and 2003 caused the death of 774 people worldwide, most of them in Mainland China.
Also heard by Lusa, Ray Choy, a professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University City of Macau, said that residents have become used to the sanitary measures and “so they do not see the urgency of taking the vaccine”, stressing that the pandemic in the SAR is stable and this contributes to making people feel comfortable.
Regarding the low vaccination rate in the territory, the professor explains that the general feeling of the Macau population is that the preparation and production of vaccines took relatively little time compared to other conventional vaccines.
“I think most residents are still concerned about safety and efficacy,” he underlined, adding that people continue with the “I’ll wait and let it see” approach.
“I think time will help more people to get the vaccine,” he said.
Anthropologist Loretta Lou, who belongs to the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Macau, also refers to her distrust of vaccines because they are new, “but also because vaccination is not part of the daily experience of ordinary people in terms of health and illnesses”.
“People forget that vaccines have saved many lives over the last century. That’s why we see a growing anti-vaccination movement worldwide”, she explained, detailing that in the case of Macau “the majority of residents received their scheduled vaccinations when they were babies”.
“For those who haven’t had seasonal flu shots in the past, the Covid-19 vaccine is their ‘first shot in a while’, so it’s understandable that people are a little concerned.”
However, the anthropologist criticizes the authorities of the city: “Public health officials could have done more public education”.
The government has been making constant calls for vaccination and has warned that the border with mainland China could tighten restrictions.
In recent weeks, and to counteract the residents’ inaction, Macau’s casinos (which employ most loal workers) have promised money, extra vacation days and raffles for those who get vaccinated.
Gaming operator Melco, has even put forward a ‘million dollar campaign for which it allocated MOP16 million and which includes the organization of seminars, paying MOP1,000 to each employee that gets “fully vaccinated” and also promoted lucky draws that can be worth six prizes of MOP1 million.
These incentives coincided with the emergence of cases in the neighbouring Chinese province of Guangdong, where the majority of tourists to Macau and a substantial part of the Macau workforce come from.
Guangdong has detected dozens of local infections since May 21, a situation that has prompted local authorities this week to impose restrictions on the internal movement of people, by dictating that anyone wanting to leave the province must test covid-19, and isolate entire neighbourhoods.
“I think the Macau population is a little too comfortable with the ‘new normal’ as new cases are increasing. As the sense of crisis looms, we see more residents booking their Covid-19 vaccine spots these past few days,” explained Loretta Lou.
On the other hand, Ray Choy draws a direct link between the increase in residents who booked reservations for vaccination in the last week and the emergence of new cases in both Guangdong and Taiwan.
“Last week, more than 40,000 residents booked to get the vaccine, which is the highest number since the program was introduced in February this year,” he said.
