Nov. 10, 2009 (Xinhua News Agency) -- Sociologist backs controversial Beijing decision on flu vaccinations
BEIJING, Nov.10 (Xinhua) -- A leading sociologist Tuesday voiced support for Beijing health bureau's decision to give free A/H1N1 inoculations to the city's 12 million permanent residents before migrant residents.
Professor Xia Xueluan, of the Department of Sociology, Institute of Sociology and Anthropology of Peking University, told Xinhua that he fully understood the decision because of the progressive supply of vaccines.
"The procedure of inoculation should be gradual as the vaccine supply cannot cover all people in Beijing right away," he said.
Beijing Municipal Health Bureau announced late Monday it would consider offering free inoculations against the A/H1N1 flu virus to migrant residents without hukou (registered permanent residence).
The announcement was in response to heated online discussions and public complaints about a notice issued by the bureau on Friday, which said the municipal authorities would offer free vaccines to the city's 12 million permanent residents.
The notice, which failed to mention migrants and people without hukou, came under fire on online forums and major Chinese portals.
By Tuesday, more than 3,700 web pages related to the discussion of the issue could be found on baidu.com (NASDAQ:BIDU) , a major Chinese search engine.
"There are 5 million migrant residents in the city. They also have a right to be inoculated," wrote one person on the website of English-language paper China Daily, chinadaily.com.cn.
"If someone catches A/H1N1 in Beijing, it means an epidemic is imminent in the city," another person wrote on eastday.com.cn. "And there's no reason to exclude people without hukou."
The bureau said a limited supply of vaccines had led it to make the decision and health authorities would promote the free inoculation program to more people, including migrant residents in Beijing.
However, the bureau did not give a time-frame for the extension of the program and calls to the information office of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau went unanswered Tuesday.
"The municipal health authorities pledged to expand the free vaccine inoculation drive to benefit the migrant population later, and people should trust what the government had promised," said Xia.
In its clarification late Monday, the bureau said people without Beijing hukou were not all excluded.
School students and staff in government departments, public institutions and those affiliated with enterprises could be inoculated at their own vaccine stations.
The bureau decided Friday to offer inoculations to permanent residents -- about two third's of the city's total population -- from Nov. 16 to Dec. 13.
Residents with hukou aged from 3 to 60 can be inoculated at 402 vaccine stations across the city between 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., excluding lunchtime, from Monday to Sunday, according to a notice posted on the bureau's website.
Senior citizens were excluded because there were no A/H1N1 flu vaccines fit for people over 60, said the notice.
China's vaccination program aims to cover 65 million people on the mainland by the year end. Almost 9 million had received shots by Monday, according to the latest update of the Ministry of Health.
About 390 million people on the Chinese mainland need inoculation. Targeted groups included the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and armed police forces, police, medical staff, teachers, and patients with chronic or cardiovascular diseases, experts said.
As of Monday, more than 39 million doses had been produced by domestic companies, said the ministry.
As of Monday, 30 people on the mainland had died of the flu among almost 60,000 confirmed cases, figures from the ministry showed.
The flu had entered a period of high frequency and quick transfer, which could run till March next year, ministry experts have warned.
China was the first country in the world to issue a production license for A/H1N1 vaccines.
