China vaccine scam: Party should listen to media

THE impact of the latest healthcare scandal in China, this time involving the sale of illegal vaccines, is spreading as officials acknowledge more than two-thirds of the country's provinces are affected.

Hong Kong, too, is a victim as mainland parents who don't trust vaccines made and distributed in China bring their children to the city for inoculations. Already, the number of non-local children served so far this year is 27 per cent higher than in the same period last year.

While the Hong Kong government insists there are sufficient vaccines for all local children, the city cannot possibly provide for the medical needs of a country of over a billion people or even of neighbouring Guangdong province, whose population is more than 10 times that of Hong Kong.