Monitoring the pandemic | “Refusing to give an inch”

I noted this article yesterday, this is the print version today. Most comments at the site mock Carrie Lam for her stubbornness. She made exactly the same mistake in 2019 when she refused to reconsider her Extradition Bill in the face of mass protests. That led to more demos, then daily riots and vandalism across the city and Beijing’s National Security Bill in 2021. Learnt nothing. Tone deaf. She’s in character to the end. Good riddance. Though Johnny Lee will be even more stubborn, me guess.

“On the menu: Flip Flop Curry” said one of the commenters yesterday, noting that only the day before Lam had been talking about easing pandemic restrictions to start regaining some of our International City vibe.  “Politics trumps economy” said I at the site. “Politics trumps intelligence” responded another.

Note the underlined bit above: “pandemic adviser” professor David Hui says showing  RAT test before entering bars or pubs is more of a “gesture”. You can’t tell when a RAT test was taken, so what’s the point?  I have a pile of negative results sitting on the coffee table. Care to borrow one? A lot else has been “hygiene theatre”, even the masking — which on a macro level shows no benefits. And those plastic dividers in restaurants. Meantime we’re watching a Netflix special this year in Spain and England, and you’d not know they’d had (some ways still have) a pandemic.

Poor us. Caught on Beijing’s cleft stick. Carrie Lam is religious. She fears god. More temporally, she fears Beijing.