【Petition for recalling forcibly COVID-19 vaccination in HKUS | 科大學生會官方頻道

【Petition for recalling forcibly COVID-19 vaccination in HKUST】

Lately, HKUST has been “encouraging” school staff, faculty, students and contractors to be vaccinated before the 2021 Fall semester or receiving regular testing every 14 days, else disciplinary actions will be made. HKUSTSU had been receiving complaints and opinions toward the policy while we understand that stakeholders of the university have great concern about the policy. Therefore the HKUSTSU is now starting up a petition recalling the approach towards forcibly vaccination and urging for amelioration of the policy.

Till now, there have been more than 30 deaths and COVID-19 vaccine related allergies, including palsy, fever, Anaphylaxis, have occurred after they were being vaccinated. The school should not compel members of HKUST to risk their health and life.

Compared with other universities in Hong Kong, the policy that HKUST had provoked was the most harsh and strict. Firstly, the policy was aimed for each and every campus user, including students, professors, staff and contractors, not just students living in halls (unlike HKU, CU or EduU). Secondly, people who refuse to be vaccinated and to take the COVID-19 testing will be prohibited to enter the campus, exploiting the rights of HKUST members. Moreover, the school will not subsidize the fee for regular testing (unlike PolyU where free testing services will be provided, or HKU or EduU which will be partially subsidized). The regular testing every 14 days is undoubtedly costly and time consuming. The school’s policy of imposing disciplinary actions towards people who do not get the vaccine and not get tested shows that the school is ignoring students and staff’s concerns and doubts on the vaccine and blindly carrying out this policy.

Vaccination on its own, is of good intention, to protect us against disease. However, taking the side effect and the effectiveness of these vaccines towards the continuously variating virus into consideration, the school’s policy to ‘encourage’, in fact requiring us to get vaccinated, is not the best way to do it. The school should wait for a more optimized, functional vaccine , then encourage students and staff to get vaccinated, instead of forcing them to risk getting a vaccine that is not fully safe, and may contain serious side effects.

We urge everyone to join hands and express our concerns to the school, including our urge for the school to withdraw the mandatory vaccination policy, and amend its disease prevention measurements.