今早為Asian Medical Students Association Hong Kong (AMSAHK)的新一屆執行委員會就職典禮作致詞分享嘉賓，題目為「疫情中的健康不公平」。
感謝他們的熱情款待以及為整段致詞拍了影片。以下我附上致詞的英文原稿：

It's been my honor to be invited to give the closing remarks for the Inauguration Ceremony for the incoming executive committee of the Asian Medical Students' Association Hong Kong (AMSAHK) this morning. A video has been taken for the remarks I made regarding health inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic (big thanks to the student who withstood the soreness of her arm for holding the camera up for 15 minutes straight), and here's the transcript of the main body of the speech that goes with this video:

//The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, continues to be rampant around the world since early 2020, resulting in more than 55 million cases and 1.3 million deaths worldwide as of today. (So no! It’s not a hoax for those conspiracy theorists out there!) A higher rate of incidence and deaths, as well as worse health-related quality of life have been widely observed in the socially disadvantaged groups, including people of lower socioeconomic position, older persons, migrants, ethnic minority and communities of color, etc. While epidemiologists and scientists around the world are dedicated in gathering scientific evidence on the specific causes and determinants of the health inequalities observed in different countries and regions, we can apply the Social Determinants of Health Conceptual Framework developed by the World Health Organization team led by the eminent Prof Sir Michael Marmot, world’s leading social epidemiologist, to understand and delineate these social determinants of health inequalities related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to this framework, social determinants of health can be largely categorized into two types – 1) the lower stream, intermediary determinants, and 2) the upper stream, structural and macro-environmental determinants. For the COVID-19 pandemic, we realized that the lower stream factors may include material circumstances, such as people’s living and working conditions. For instance, the nature of the occupations of these people of lower socioeconomic position tends to require them to travel outside to work, i.e., they cannot work from home, which is a luxury for people who can afford to do it. This lack of choice in the location of occupation may expose them to greater risk of infection through more transportation and interactions with strangers. We have also seen infection clusters among crowded places like elderly homes, public housing estates, and boarding houses for foreign domestic helpers. Moreover, these socially disadvantaged people tend to have lower financial and social capital – it can be observed that they were more likely to be deprived of personal protective equipment like face masks and hand sanitizers, especially during the earlier days of the pandemic. On the other hand, the upper stream, structural determinants of health may include policies related to public health, education, macroeconomics, social protection and welfare, as well as our governance… and last, but not least, our culture and values. If the socioeconomic and political contexts are not favorable to the socially disadvantaged, their health and well-being will be disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Therefore, if we, as a society, espouse to address and reduce the problem of health inequalities, social determinants of health cannot be overlooked in devising and designing any public health-related strategies, measures and policies.

Although a higher rate of incidence and deaths have been widely observed in the socially disadvantaged groups, especially in countries with severe COVID-19 outbreaks, this phenomenon seems to be less discussed and less covered by media in Hong Kong, where the disease incidence is relatively low when compared with other countries around the world. Before the resurgence of local cases in early July, local spread of COVID-19 was sporadic and most cases were imported. In the earlier days of the pandemic, most cases were primarily imported by travelers and return-students studying overseas, leading to a minor surge between mid-March and mid-April of 874 new cases. Most of these cases during Spring were people who could afford to travel and study abroad, and thus tended to be more well-off. Therefore, some would say the expected social gradient in health impact did not seem to exist in Hong Kong, but may I remind you that, it is only the case when we focus on COVID-19-specific incidence and mortality alone. But can we really deduce from this that COVID-19-related health inequality does not exist in Hong Kong? According to the Social Determinants of Health Framework mentioned earlier, the obvious answer is “No, of course not.” And here’s why…

In addition to the direct disease burden, the COVID-19 outbreak and its associated containment measures (such as economic lockdown, mandatory social distancing, and change of work arrangements) could have unequal wider socioeconomic impacts on the general population, especially in regions with pervasive existing social inequalities. Given the limited resources and capacity of the socioeconomically disadvantaged to respond to emergency and adverse events, their general health and well-being are likely to be unduly and inordinately affected by the abrupt changes in their daily economic and social conditions, like job loss and insecurity, brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak and the corresponding containment and mitigation measures of which the main purpose was supposedly disease prevention and health protection at the first place. As such, focusing only on COVID-19 incidence or mortality as the outcomes of concern to address health inequalities may leave out important aspects of life that contributes significantly to people’s health. Recently, my research team and I collaborated with Sir Michael Marmot in a Hong Kong study, and found that the poor people in Hong Kong fared worse in every aspects of life than their richer counterparts in terms of economic activity, personal protective equipment, personal hygiene practice, as well as well-being and health after the COVID-19 outbreak. We also found that part of the observed health inequality can be attributed to the pandemic and its related containment measures via people’s concerns over their own and their families’ livelihood and economic activity. In other words, health inequalities were contributed by the pandemic even in a city where incidence is relatively low through other social determinants of health that directly concerned the livelihood and economic activity of the people. So in this study, we confirmed that focusing only on the incident and death cases as the outcomes of concern to address health inequalities is like a story half-told, and would severely truncate and distort the reality.

Truth be told, health inequality does not only appear after the pandemic outbreak of COVID-19, it is a pre-existing condition in countries and regions around the world, including Hong Kong. My research over the years have consistently shown that people in lower socioeconomic position tend to have worse physical and mental health status. Nevertheless, precisely because health inequality is nothing new, there are always voices in our society trying to dismiss the problem, arguing that it is only natural to have wealth inequality in any capitalistic society. However, in reckoning with health inequalities, we need to go beyond just figuring out the disparities or differences in health status between the poor and the rich, and we need to raise an ethically relevant question: are these inequalities, disparities and differences remediable? Can they be fixed? Can we do something about them? If they are remediable, and we can do something about them but we haven’t, then we’d say these inequalities are ultimately unjust and unfair. In other words, a society that prides itself in pursuing justice must, and I say must, strive to address and reduce these unfair health inequalities. Borrowing the words from famed sociologist Judith Butler, “the virus alone does not discriminate,” but “social and economic inequality will make sure that it does.” With COVID-19, we learn that it is not only the individuals who are sick, but our society. And it’s time we do something about it.

Thank you very much!//

Please join me in congratulating the incoming executive committee of AMSAHK and giving them the best wishes for their future endeavor!

Roger Chung, PhD
Assistant Professor, CUHK JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, @CUHK Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong 香港中文大學 - CUHK
Associate Director, CUHK Institute of Health Equity

「Epidemiologic and Clinical Characteristics of Novel Coronavirus Infections Involving 13 Patients Outside Wuhan, China(2020/02/07)+中文摘要轉譯」


➥中文摘要轉譯：
截至2/4日，北京報告13例，大多為年輕健康人。症狀輕微且無人死亡。與過去報導一致，健康人感染後預後較佳。
註：初期流行病學易有偏誤，不可推估大流行時狀況。(財團法人國家衛生研究院-郭書辰醫師整理)


➥In December 2019, cases of pneumonia appeared in Wuhan, China. The etiology of these infections was a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV),1,2 possibly connected to zoonotic or environmental exposure from the seafood market in Wuhan. Human-to-human transmission has accounted for most of the infections, including among health care workers.3,4 The virus has spread to different parts of China and at least 26 other countries.1 A high number of men have been infected, and the reported mortality rate has been approximately 2%, which is lower than that reported from other coronavirus epidemics including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS; mortality rate, >40% in patients aged >60 years)5 and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS; mortality rate, 30%).6 However, little is known about the clinical manifestations of 2019-nCoV in healthy populations or cases outside Wuhan. We report early clinical features of 13 patients with confirmed 2019-nCoV infection admitted to hospitals in Beijing.


「Methods」
Data were obtained from 3 hospitals in Beijing, China (Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University [8 patients], Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University [4 patients], and College of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Chinese PLA General Hospital [1 patient]). Patients were hospitalized from January 16, 2020, to January 29, 2020, with final follow-up for this report on February 4, 2020. Patients with possible 2019-nCoV were admitted and quarantined, and throat swab samples were collected and sent to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention for detection of 2019-nCoV using a quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay.3 Chest radiography or computed tomography was performed. Data were obtained as part of standard care. Patients were transferred to a specialized hospital after diagnosis. This study was approved by the ethics commissions of the 3 hospitals, with a waiver of informed consent.


「Results」
The median age of the patients was 34 years (25th-75th percentile, 34-48 years); 2 patients were children (aged 2 years and 15 years), and 10 (77%) were male. Twelve patients either visited Wuhan, including a family (parents and son), or had family members (grandparents of the 2-year-old child) who visited Wuhan after the onset of the 2019-nCoV epidemic (mean stay, 2.5 days). One patient did not have any known contact with Wuhan.


Twelve patients reported fever (mean, 1.6 days) before hospitalization. Symptoms included cough (46.3%), upper airway congestion (61.5%), myalgia (23.1%), and headache (23.1%) (Table). No patient required respiratory support before being transferred to the specialty hospital after a mean of 2 days. The youngest patient (aged 2 years) had intermittent fever for 1 week and persistent cough for 13 days before 2019-nCoV diagnosis. Levels of inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein were elevated, and numbers of lymphocytes were marginally elevated (Table).


Four patients had chest radiographs and 9 had computed tomography. Five images did not demonstrate any consolidation or scarring. One chest radiograph demonstrated scattered opacities in the left lower lung; in 6 patients, ground glass opacity was observed in the right or both lungs (Figure). As of February 4, 2020, all the patients recovered, but 12 were still being quarantined in the hospital.


➥Author: De Chang, Minggui Lin, Lai Wei, et al.

➥Link: (JAMA) https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2761043


衛生福利部
疾病管制署 - 1922防疫達人
疾病管制署
國家衛生研究院-論壇
#2019COVID19Academic

「Epidemiologic and Clinical Characteristics of Novel Coronavirus Infections Involving 13 Patients Outside Wuhan, China(2020/02/07)+中文摘要轉譯」


➥中文摘要轉譯：
截至2/4日，北京報告13例，大多為年輕健康人。症狀輕微且無人死亡。與過去報導一致，健康人感染後預後較佳。
註：初期流行病學易有偏誤，不可推估大流行時狀況。(財團法人國家衛生研究院-郭書辰醫師整理)


➥In December 2019, cases of pneumonia appeared in Wuhan, China. The etiology of these infections was a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV),1,2 possibly connected to zoonotic or environmental exposure from the seafood market in Wuhan. Human-to-human transmission has accounted for most of the infections, including among health care workers.3,4 The virus has spread to different parts of China and at least 26 other countries.1 A high number of men have been infected, and the reported mortality rate has been approximately 2%, which is lower than that reported from other coronavirus epidemics including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS; mortality rate, >40% in patients aged >60 years)5 and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS; mortality rate, 30%).6 However, little is known about the clinical manifestations of 2019-nCoV in healthy populations or cases outside Wuhan. We report early clinical features of 13 patients with confirmed 2019-nCoV infection admitted to hospitals in Beijing.


「Methods」
Data were obtained from 3 hospitals in Beijing, China (Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University [8 patients], Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University [4 patients], and College of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Chinese PLA General Hospital [1 patient]). Patients were hospitalized from January 16, 2020, to January 29, 2020, with final follow-up for this report on February 4, 2020. Patients with possible 2019-nCoV were admitted and quarantined, and throat swab samples were collected and sent to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention for detection of 2019-nCoV using a quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay.3 Chest radiography or computed tomography was performed. Data were obtained as part of standard care. Patients were transferred to a specialized hospital after diagnosis. This study was approved by the ethics commissions of the 3 hospitals, with a waiver of informed consent.


「Results」
The median age of the patients was 34 years (25th-75th percentile, 34-48 years); 2 patients were children (aged 2 years and 15 years), and 10 (77%) were male. Twelve patients either visited Wuhan, including a family (parents and son), or had family members (grandparents of the 2-year-old child) who visited Wuhan after the onset of the 2019-nCoV epidemic (mean stay, 2.5 days). One patient did not have any known contact with Wuhan.


Twelve patients reported fever (mean, 1.6 days) before hospitalization. Symptoms included cough (46.3%), upper airway congestion (61.5%), myalgia (23.1%), and headache (23.1%) (Table). No patient required respiratory support before being transferred to the specialty hospital after a mean of 2 days. The youngest patient (aged 2 years) had intermittent fever for 1 week and persistent cough for 13 days before 2019-nCoV diagnosis. Levels of inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein were elevated, and numbers of lymphocytes were marginally elevated (Table).


Four patients had chest radiographs and 9 had computed tomography. Five images did not demonstrate any consolidation or scarring. One chest radiograph demonstrated scattered opacities in the left lower lung; in 6 patients, ground glass opacity was observed in the right or both lungs (Figure). As of February 4, 2020, all the patients recovered, but 12 were still being quarantined in the hospital.


➥Author: De Chang, Minggui Lin, Lai Wei, et al.

➥Link: (JAMA) https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2761043


衛生福利部
疾病管制署 - 1922防疫達人
疾病管制署
國家衛生研究院-論壇
#2019COVID19Academic