Monitoring the pandemic | Marching on autopilot

Main article SCMP’s Op-Ed page
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Good ol Mike Rowse, a mate of mine from the old days (90s), sets it out again, in the South China Morning Post. We’re trudging along here in Hong Kong, our new government, on autopilot, just twitches and tweaks to the world’s most restrictive Covid policies. While the rest of the world gets on with it, even with rising infections. So I know from the media, and so confirms Jing, newly out of quarantine after a European trip. Strikes aside, all is normal there.

Mike tackles quarantine, testing and masking. As in “get rid of them all”. (At least, aim to do so). To which I say “yes!”. Please. But our government is nowhere near that territory. It’s tweaking. And twitching. And giving us no longer-term hope. 

On the mask issue I read somewhere a few days ago, I think a Hong Kong paper, an official saying “we must treat masking like seat belts”. And I thought “nooooooo…!”. We don’t want these horrid things to become part of normal life, an automatic thing, like belting up. I like to see people’s faces. I hate the discomfort and glasses fogging. I can’t be the only one thinks that. And no, I don’t buy the “if it saves one life it’s worth it” argument. All the IRL data shows little to no benefit from masking mandates. 

ADDED: “The world won’t stand still for Hong Kong”. Local letter with 100% supportive comments