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| HONG KONG — For two years, Hong Kong had largely avoided a major coronavirus outbreak with tight border controls and strict social distancing measures. Then Omicron triggered an explosion of infections, exposing the city’s failure to prepare its older — and most at risk — residents for the worst. |
| 香港——两年来，通过严密的边境管制和严格的社交距离措施，香港基本没有出现新冠病毒的大暴发。随后，奥密克戎毒株引发了爆炸性感染，暴露出该市未能帮助年纪较长、也是风险最大的居民为最坏情况做好准备。 |
| In a matter of weeks, the outbreak quickly overwhelmed Hong Kong’s world-class medical system. Ambulances arrived at emergency units in droves. Hospitals ran out of beds in isolation wards. Patients waited in gurneys on sidewalks and in parking lots, given emergency blankets for warmth during the coldest and wettest time of the year. |
| 短短几周内，疫情迅速击垮了香港世界级的医疗系统。救护车成群结队地到达急救站。医院的隔离病房已经没有床位。在一年最寒冷、最潮湿的时候，病人在人行道和停车场的轮床上等待，工作人员分发急救毯给他们保暖。 |
| Hong Kong’s early success in keeping the pandemic at bay was the starting point of a complacency that has now had deadly consequences. Officials have moved too slowly to prepare for a broader outbreak, and did too little to address misinformation around vaccines, social workers and experts say. For many of the city’s one million residents who are 70 or older, the risk of getting sick had long seemed so low that they avoided getting inoculated. |
| 香港早期遏制疫情方面的成功成为其自满情绪的起点，如今这种自满情绪已造成致命后果。社会工作者和专家说，官员们在为更广泛的疫情做准备方面行动太慢，在解决有关疫苗的错误信息方面做得太少。这座城市有100万70岁以上的居民，对其中许多人来说，一直以来，患病的风险似乎很低，因此他们不去接种疫苗。 |
| Before the current outbreak, less than half of people in that age group were vaccinated. Among residents of care homes, the rate was even lower, at just 20 percent, according to the Hong Kong Council of Social Service. Now they are bearing the brunt of the city’s worst outbreak. More than 200 people have died this month from Covid, many of whom were over 70 and unvaccinated. |
| 在本次疫情暴发之前，该年龄组中只有不到一半的人接种了疫苗。根据香港社会服务联会的数据，在住养老院的人当中，这一比例甚至更低，只有20%。现在，他们正承受着该市最严重疫情的冲击。本月已有200多人死于新冠病毒，其中许多人年逾70岁，未接种疫苗。 |
| The hesitancy over vaccines has been attributed to misinformation about the vaccines’ potential side effects and efficacy, as well as a high level of public distrust of the government. But even as Hong Kong recorded more deaths in just over two weeks than it did in the last two years, some residents remained reluctant to get inoculated. |
| 在疫苗问题上的犹豫被归因于对疫苗潜在副作用和效力的错误信息，以及公众对政府的高度不信任。不过，尽管香港在短短两周内的死亡人数超过了过去两年，但一些居民仍然不愿接种疫苗。 |
| “I worry that the side effects of vaccination will kill me,” said Lam Suk-haa, an 80-year-old resident who stopped to talk on her way to a restaurant in the working-class neighborhood of North Point on Wednesday. “For sure, I don’t dare get the shot.” |
| “我害怕咯！副作用，”80岁的居民林淑霞（音）说。周三，她在去北角工薪阶层社区一家餐馆的路上停下来交谈。“当然不敢打啦。” |
| Ms. Lam said she was skeptical of Western medicine in general. She also said she had heard from a television news report that people like her who have high blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels could be at risk of severe side effects from vaccination. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in fact, recommends that older people with medical conditions get vaccinated to reduce the risk of severe illness.) |
| 林淑霞说，她总体上对西医持怀疑态度。她还说，从电视新闻报道中听说，像她这样患有高血压、胆固醇和血糖水平高的人接种疫苗可能会有严重副作用风险。（事实上，美国疾病控制与预防中心建议患有疾病的老年人接种疫苗，以降低重症风险。） |
| Health officials in recent days have repeatedly urged older people to get vaccinated and are working to ramp up the inoculation of residents at care homes. The government also imposed rules requiring proof of vaccination to enter restaurants, malls and supermarkets. These measures have helped: Now, three-quarters of people in their 70s, and nearly half of those age 80 or older, have received at least one shot. |
| 卫生官员最近几天一再敦促老年人接种疫苗，并正在努力加大对养老院居住者的接种力度。政府还规定，进入餐厅、商场和超市时必须出示疫苗接种证明。这些措施起到了作用：现在，四分之三的70岁以上老人，以及近一半80岁或以上的老人，都至少接种了第一针。 |
| The vaccine entry requirement was what ultimately persuaded Ella Chan, 73, to get her first shot this week. She said she had initially hesitated because she had a cold, and then continued to put it off because of reports she had read that made her concerned. |
| 疫苗准入要求最终让73岁的艾拉·陈于本周接种了第一针疫苗。她说，一开始她有点犹豫是因为感冒了，后来又读到了一些让她担心的报道，于是就继续拖延下去。 |
| “I didn’t want to get vaccinated then because I had read the newspapers and I had many worries, and I kept pushing it back and back, until now,” Ms. Chan said as she left a government building in North Point where she got her vaccination. |
| “因为看报纸，有好多担心，那就一直往后推推推，推到现在，”艾拉·陈在离开北角一座政府大楼时说，她在那里接种了疫苗。 |
| Such worries point to the misinformation about vaccines that has spread rapidly in Hong Kong, where residents can choose between the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech or the one developed by Sinovac, a private Chinese company. |
| 这种担忧表明，有关疫苗的错误信息在香港蔓延得很快。在香港，居民可以在辉瑞-BioNTech开发的疫苗或中国民营企业科兴开发的疫苗之间进行选择。 |
| Infrequent reports of deaths following inoculations turned into rumors about the dangers of vaccines that circulated widely on WhatsApp groups and social media, even though officials have not attributed any of the fatalities to either vaccine. |
| 接种疫苗后罕见的死亡报告变成了有关疫苗危险的谣言，在WhatsApp群组和社交媒体上广泛传播，尽管官员们没有将任何死亡归咎于这两种疫苗。 |
| Terry Lum, a professor of social work at the University of Hong Kong, said that the government had been slow to correct misconceptions about the efficacy of the vaccines and their side effects. He said many older residents believed that the Sinovac vaccine was not effective and that the BioNTech vaccine caused many severe side effects. |
| 香港大学研究社会工作的教授林一星说，政府在纠正有关疫苗功效及其副作用的误解方面进展缓慢。他说，许多老年居民认为科兴疫苗没有效果，而BioNTech疫苗有许多严重的副作用。 |
| “When that misinformation is circulating and no one comes out to clarify the information, and we have such low cases, the people wonder, ‘Why would I take the risk?’” Mr. Lum said. Some residents in the semiautonomous Chinese city were also suspicious of the government’s promotion of Chinese-made vaccines. “People felt there was a political reason for the government to push Sinovac,” he said. |
| “当这种错误信息在传播，没有人出来澄清，而且我们的病例非常少，大家就会想，‘我为什么要冒这个险？’”林一星说。在这座半自治的中国城市，一些居民还对政府推广国产疫苗表示怀疑。“人们觉得政府推动科兴疫苗有政治原因，”他表示。 |
| The situation in Hong Kong is striking especially when compared to Singapore, an island of about five million people where 95 percent of people 70 and older are vaccinated. Ho Ching, the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore, took to Facebook to urge Hong Kong’s older people to “put aside their distrust or mistrust of government, their memories of their flight from China, or any other reason for distrust of authorities.” |
| 与人口约500万的岛国新加坡相比，香港的情况尤其令人震惊。新加坡70岁及以上人口当中，95%都接种了疫苗。新加坡总理李显龙的妻子何晶在Facebook上敦促香港老年人“放下对政府的不信任，放下逃离中国的记忆、或任何其他不信任当局的原因”。 |
| To some degree, the government’s cautious approach to vaccinations early on may have fed concerns about the risks. In March of last year, for instance, officials noted that the Sinovac vaccine should not be given to people with “uncontrolled severe chronic diseases,” and urged residents who weren’t sure about their medical conditions to consult their doctors before getting vaccinated. |
| 在某种程度上，政府早期对疫苗接种的谨慎态度可能引发了人们对风险的担忧。例如，去年3月，官员们指出，不应给“未控制的严重慢性病”患者接种科兴疫苗，并敦促不确定自己健康状况的居民在接种疫苗前咨询医生。 |
| “The fear around vaccination took hold and it was reinforced by the health care system,” said Karen Grépin, an associate professor at Hong Kong University who specializes in economics and health systems. “We created this idea that people needed to become healthy candidates in order to get vaccinated.” |
| “人们对疫苗接种产生了恐惧，卫生保健系统也加强了这种恐惧，”香港大学专门研究经济学和卫生系统的副教授凯伦·格雷平说。 “我们创造了这样的想法：要想接种疫苗，必须首先成为健康的候选人。” |
| Now, officials are scrambling to get more older residents protected, but that addresses only one problem. Nursing home operators and social workers say the government’s lack of preparedness for the explosion in cases has created unnecessary chaos. When public hospitals ran out of beds, care homes didn’t have the staff or equipment to care for those who fell sick, nor the space to isolate them from the rest of the residents. |
| 现在，官员们正努力使更多的老年居民得到保护，但这只解决了一个问题。养老院经营者和社会工作者说，政府对病例大增的准备不足造成了不必要的混乱。当公立医院床位用完时，养老院没有医护人员或设备来照顾病人，也没有空间将他们与其他居住者隔离。 |
| Nursing homes in Hong Kong have been closed to visitors since last fall. Still, cases have appeared in many homes in recent weeks, industry officials say. At meetings of representatives of some 300 homes this week, more than 70 percent said they had recorded Covid cases in residents or staff members, said Joe Chan, secretary of the Elderly Services Association of Hong Kong, an industry group. |
| 自去年秋天以来，香港的养老院已对访客关闭。不过，行业管理人士说，最近几周，很多养老院都出现了病例。行业组织香港安老服务协会秘书长陈勇舟表示，在本周举行的约300家养老院的代表会议上，超过70%的养老院表示，他们在居住者或员工中录得新冠病例。 |
| “For us, the situation right now is really not healthy,” said Mr. Chan, who is also the managing director of the Granyet Elderly Care Group, which runs six homes with 640 beds. “There are no quarantine centers for our staff or close contacts with cases. All of them are stuck in elderly homes, which is not a good environment.” |
| “对我们来说，目前的情况真的很不健康，”陈勇舟说。他还是钧溢护老集团的董事总经理，该集团经营着六家养老院，有640个床位。“我们的工作人员和密切接触者没有隔离中心。他们都被困在养老院，那里的环境并不好。” |
| The Hong Kong government has yet to issue official guidelines to nursing homes on how to handle an outbreak, said Chua Hoi-wai, the chief executive of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service. Despite having had two years to prepare for such an event, the rapid spread caught many by surprise. |
| 香港社会服务联会行政总裁蔡海伟表示，香港政府尚未向养老院发出如何处理疫情的正式指导方针。尽管有两年的时间为这样的事件做准备，但迅速的传播还是让许多人措手不及。 |
| “No one had ever expected we would have so many confirmed cases in so few weeks,” Mr. Chua said. Some care facilities, he said, are looking at waits of as long as a month for public health workers to visit and administer shots. |
| “没人料到我们会在这么短的时间内发现这么多确诊病例，”蔡海伟说。他表示，一些养老机构需要等待长达一个月的时间，才会有公共卫生工作人员上门注射疫苗。 |
| The spiraling outbreak might not sway the attitudes of Hong Kong residents like Ms. Lam, the 80-year-old who has yet to get the jab, unless the government makes inoculations mandatory. |
| 不断恶化的疫情可能也不会改变现年80岁、尚未接种疫苗的林淑霞这种香港市民的态度，除非政府强制规定接种疫苗。 |
| “I won’t get vaccinated as long as I have a choice,” Ms. Lam said. “Let young people get the shot.” |
| “如果可以不打我都不打，”林女士说。“让年轻人去打吧。” |
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