Since the Hong Kong government is trying to increase the COVID-19 vaccination rate, although people are allowed to apply for a “COVID-19 vaccination medical exemption certificate,” commonly known as a “jab-free cert,” from doctors because of their own illness, the authorities tightened the threshold at the beginning of this year, forcing many people who need the certs searching for doctors to issue them.
Headache Looking for New Cert
Civil servant Ah-shu (pseudonym) suffers from chronic respiratory disease. He has been working with a jab-free cert since August last year. Later, he had been confirmed with COVID-19 during the fifth wave of the pandemic in March this year. He applied for the renewal of the jab-free cert in early Aug. as his recovery record expired in early Sept. His doctor is one of those who were accused of suspected scamming on issuing jab-free certs.“He (the doctor) just asked me a few questions, then he issued it [the jab-free cert] to me, but the questions were not too detailed,” Ah-shu said that he was surprised to learn that the doctor had been arrested.
Most of his colleagues in Ah-shu’s work team have already got vaccinated. In recent months, his boss had “recommended” he get vaccinated in an unfriendly tone occasionally, which put him under pressure.
He had planned to find the doctor, who had issued the jab-free cert to him before, but he was worried that the doctor might not issue it again easily due to pressure. Recently he went to another doctor for consultation in another district, but the doctor refused to issue the cert, as the doctor mentioned that he did not meet the requirements.
Doctors are Under Pressure
R (pseudonym), who works as a teaching assistant, has blood pressure and eczema. Last year, due to the request of the school, he had to find a registered doctor to apply for a jab-free cert in order to go to work.The paper and electronic versions of the jab-free cert he has held for months were issued by one of the doctors who had been arrested. R said that his latest jab-free cert was originally scheduled to expire in Nov., but since the authorities announced that they would not recognize the jab-free certs issued by the seven arrested doctors, the school asked him to find other doctors to reissue it. But it was very difficult to search for a new one, so he does not know what to do.
R mentioned that there were doctors in the market who issued a jab-free cert at HK$4,000 (approx. US$509), he sighed with regret that the cost was so high that it was difficult to afford.
H (pseudonym), who had applied for a jab-free cert from a doctor, revealed to the Epoch Time that because the authorities tightened the threshold for issuing jab-free certs, many doctors issue the certs with extra precautions to avoid being suspected by the authorities of spamming. Moreover, fees have skyrocketed.
Unclear Guidelines
In fact, the Hong Kong Department of Health has issued guidelines since March last year to assist doctors in assessing whether a patient is suitable for vaccination. And it added a template and guidelines for doctors to issue jab-free certs.The template stipulates that, unless there are special medical reasons, the validity period should be less than three months, and if there are special medical reasons, it should be limited to six months.
The guidelines also mentioned that since jab-free certs are expected to be uncommon, doctors must certify that patients should not be vaccinated with both two vaccines (there are only two types of COVID-19 vaccine available in Hong Kong) in order to issue the certs. If the medical condition is listed as a “contraindication” or “precaution” for vaccination, it may be exempted. In case the patient’s condition is only a contraindication to one of the vaccines, the patient will be advised to receive the other vaccine.
However, Ms. Chau, a senior nurse who used to work in a public hospital, quoted a case that a single mother, who had just recovered from cancer, had her first injection as required for her job, at the beginning of this year, but she often vomited due to the suspected side effects a month later. But she did not get the jab-free cert from the consultation of the public hospital.
The mother obtained the jab-free cert from a private doctor successfully three months later, and then she renewed it successfully in the public hospital.
While a 70-year-old man with an immune disease argued with the doctor in charge of the public hospital and finally received a jab-free cert from the doctor.
Ms. Chau asked, “is it ridiculous?” She said that there are no consistent guidelines from the authorities and meanwhile putting pressure on the doctors. It is unfair and it seems like forcing people who need to be exempted to get injected.
Doreen Kong Yuk-foon, a pro-establishment member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, has recently severely criticized the government’s anti-pandemic policy, and she has become one of the few members in the Legislative Council, who has become “fully red (all members are pro-CCP),” to oppose the government.
Kong questioned the fact that the authorities did not recognize more than 20,000 jab-free certs at one time as a joke. She mentioned that there should be an assessment to check if all the exemptions are valid or not, and the authorities also need to state the legal principle behind them, otherwise lawsuits may be involved.
She also said that the regulation does not clearly explain why the Hong Kong Health Bureau has the power, and under what circumstances it will not recognize jab-free certs, nor does it say that it has the power to even not recognize the certs at once.
Kong asked the authorities to clarify the difference between “not recognize” and “abolish.” “If this kind of wordplay is used, I also find it funny to hear that.”
In addition to the principle of “presumed innocence” in Hong Kong, the authorities cannot simply say “reasonable doubt” and then disqualified more than 20,000 jab-free certs.
Doctor Being Monitored
Since the Department of Health tightened the threshold for issuing jab-free certs earlier this year, seven doctors in public hospitals are now required to issue jab-free certs to patients through the Clinical Management System (CMS).More than one nurse working in a public hospital told the Epoch Times that since the “LeaveHomeSafe” app added the storage function of jab-free certs at the end of January this year, the system added a reminder. Before doctors press the button for issuing the cert, a prompt will pop up asking whether the patient really needs the cert, therefore many doctors hesitated to issue it.
But Chau said that she is not sure whether the prompt function for issuing jab-free certs has been added recently, but the prompt function in other operating procedures of the system already existed, which aims to improve the accuracy of the work of medical staff, it was not surprising that even if a prompt about jab-free cert was added later.
However, Chau questioned that after the authorities digitized the jab-free certs, it would be easier for the authorities to know the status of the doctor’s issuance of the jab-free certs, maybe it would put a certain pressure on doctors.
It also allows the authorities to use the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHealth) to identify people who had applied for a jab-free cert from the seven doctors and hold them accountable.
The Epoch Time inquired with the Hong Kong Hospital Authority on the issue of jab-free certs issued by public hospital doctors, but the authority did not respond directly.
It also said that there were no statistics on the number of jab-free certs issued by doctors in public hospitals from January last year to the end of last month.
Civil Servants Detained
The police arrested four female civil servants on Oct. 7, accusing them of conspiracy to defraud by purchasing and using jab-free certs from the seven doctors.The four arrested were aged between 25 and 48. Three of them were employees of the Social Welfare Department, it was reported that two of them were social workers, and the other was a teacher in a Government School under the Education Bureau.
According to the police, the four arrested persons had repeatedly purchased jab-free certs for HK$500 (approx. US$63) to HK$2,500 (approx. US$318). The police reiterated that they would check whether there is any doubt in each cert issued by the doctor involved, and the investigation is still ongoing.
Leung Chau-ting, the chairperson of the Hong Kong Federation of Civil Service Unions, replied to the Epoch Times that civil servants lacked third-party witnesses in the process of applying for jab-free certs, and it is difficult for the authorities to verify the authenticity of jab-free certs.
He continued to point out that due to the allegation of using false instruments, this police operation has caused concern among the civil servants holding the relevant jab-free certs, but the authorities still have to wait for the court’s judgment before further action.
However, he emphasized that if the civil servants holding the relevant jab-free certs have medical certificates and can prove that they have communicated with the doctor during the consultation, they can still argue legally, and he believes that there is no need to worry too much.
A Hong Kong government spokesman said that the Civil Service Bureau is aware that the police are investigating the incident and they will cooperate with the police in their investigation.
The spokesman also pointed out that they pay great importance to the conduct of the government’s employees. If an individual is suspected of breaking the law or discipline, the authorities will definitely deal with it seriously according to the established mechanism, and they do not comment on individual cases at this moment.
According to the data, there are about 370 civil servants and 222 non-civil service government staff currently holding jab-free certs issued by the relevant doctors, but the authorities have not yet explained whether these civil servants will be subjected to internal disciplinary action or will be referred to law enforcement agencies for follow-up.
The authorities have arrested 39 people related to the incident at this moment, including 26 people and seven clinic staff. Among them, Dr. Tai Kong-shing has been temporarily charged with accessing computers with dishonest intent and is being released on bail.
