In Asia’s Covid-19 reopening debate, are scientists having too much say?

Directing arrivals to quarantine at HK airport 

John Power, sounding like he’s been reading my posts on Zero-Covid. As in: it’s more a hope than a strategy, for how do you get out of it when the rest of the world is nowhere near zero? How do you open up, ever? 

…the dominance of a relatively small group of experts from a limited number of scientific fields – in particular epidemiology and virology – has also raised questions about the kind of expertise informing the pandemic response, including whether more broad-based knowledge is needed to tackle a crisis with implications for practically every aspect of society.

Such questions have been especially pressing in “zero-Covid” economies in the Asia-Pacific, where authorities and prominent experts have adopted a hyper-cautious approach towards any loosening of restrictions, including some of the world’s strictest border controls. Although credited with keeping deaths to a minimum, a zero-tolerance attitude towards Covid-19 cases in places such as Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong has left authorities struggling to map out a path back to normality, even as other parts of the world such as Europe welcome the return of international travel. Read on…

Ive mentioned before how surreal it is to watch Australia from afar. Panicking when they get one case somewhere and locking everyone down. It’s over the top. Power has a go at Oz well. Interesting because the Post is not particularly agin’ zero Covid and our dear motherland is itself, as are we here in HK, pretty much on zero Covid “strategy” places as well.