Compared with economic and political issues, the discovery of bloodworms in some swimming polls could be dismissed as a small matter.
Posing no serious threat to swimmers, the unwelcome presence of bloodworms is disturbing, but by no means disastrous, nor necessarily scandalous.
No wonder City University biologist Richard Cheung Yun-hing, investigating the worms, expressed dismay over the controversy on Wednesday. He accused the media of wasting his time and blowing the problem out of proportion.
In an editorial on Thursday, the pro-Beijing Wen Wei Po raised similar questions about whether the time, effort and resources spent on the government investigations were reasonable.
'Does the bloodworms incident reflect the anti-rationality culture? Why has such a trivial matter been blown up into a big storm? Whether it is a case of vandalism or that some pools have provided breeding grounds for midges is no cause for alarm,' it said.
One month after the bloodworms were first spotted, the lingering mystery over how they made their way into at least six pools has never caused panic.