【明報專訊】As the pandemic rages on, many people have pinned their hopes on vaccines. In China and Russia, emergency vaccination programmes have been launched long ago. Among European countries and the US, the UK is the first to approve the emergency use of a vaccine made by Pfizer, a US company, yesterday (December 2). In Hong Kong, the government has also given a rough sketch of a vaccination programme for COVID-19. The authorities say that they have reserved funds to order vaccines enough for twice the population of Hong Kong, with the goal of making them available to all Hong Kong people free of charge. However, there will be a mountain of problems to overcome in terms of vaccine procurement, logistics co-ordination, vaccination arrangements and public response. The difficulty cannot be underestimated, and the authorities must plan ahead. Over the past few months, open and behind-closed-doors rivalry over the research and development of vaccines has never ceased, and the World Health Organisation has repeatedly warned against ''vaccine nationalism''. With the widespread use of vaccines starting in the middle of next year, the international politics of vaccines is bound to become stormy. Questions such as which vaccines the Hong Kong government will be able to obtain and whether vaccination should be mandatory can all become sensitive political issues.