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SCMP Reporter

Q Should schools be shut as a pneumonia precaution?

I am frankly surprised there needs to be a debate about this at all and am frustrated that the Education Department has not already made the decision to close all schools.

Every day I weigh up the options between my children getting infected or falling behind with their schoolwork.

Obviously, people cannot be expected to isolate themselves completely, but given what we know to date about this virus infecting clusters of people in close proximity with each other, it is without doubt that the educational environment - be it a classroom, a school bus, or a playground - is highly conducive to this virus being passed from one infected child to everyone else that the child interacts with.

The repercussions of this do not even bear thinking about. Given that at least 20 to 30 people a day are being infected, how much longer is it going to be before hospital resources and facilities are stretched to their limits and everyday life disrupted even further, if only by stress and anxiety?

I am amazed that the Education Department is prepared to bear the responsibility of not only placing the lives of our children under threat, but also the welfare of society as a whole.

Name and address supplied

I completely agree with Elisa Chan's recommendation (South China Morning Post, March 25) of closing all schools to protect our family, colleagues and friends by doing our best to stop pneumonia further spreading in the community.

Name and address supplied

There are so many facts and rumours surrounding the recent pneumonia scare. Since we are not seeing a reduction in the number of new cases, and there is no information on the number of suspected or possible cases, it is only natural and prudent to take precautions. What I do not understand is why the Education and Manpower Bureau cannot make the simple and sound decision to close all Hong Kong schools for two weeks with immediate effect. When will the bureau realise that it is more important to do what is necessary to eliminate or reduce the chances of this virus from spreading further than to worry about creating a panic? In many ways, the panic is already there.

Most Hong Kong parents continue to send their children to school even when they show symptoms of the common cold, a bad cough, or the flu - symptoms which are not so different from those of the atypical pneumonia - because they worry about the domino effect of missing a few days of classes, namely having a large pile of homework to catch up on, missing information that might be covered in tests, or simply being absent when there are exams.

If all schools were closed for two weeks, parents and students would not have to face the difficult decision of making their children stay at home or go to class. Shutting down schools after cases of atypical pneumonia are found is useless. A student who is confirmed to be infected may have already given the virus to numerous other people.

Furthermore, this policy is far from being precautionary. It is, in fact, reactionary. Teaching children not to play with fire and keeping matches out of their reach is precautionary. Throwing water on a burning tree is not only reactionary, it is also pathetic if in doing so one misses all the burning embers that could burn down the whole forest. Once again, our government is focusing on the tree and overlooking the forest.

Ronna Chao Heffner, Kowloon Tong

Atypical pneumonia should be classified as a notifiable disease by the government as a means of restricting its spread.

All health personnel who have been in contact with the condition and their families should be screened for symptoms, as well as family members and colleagues of anyone else who has contracted the disease. That leaves the majority of the public, to whom very clear guidelines on hygiene and symptoms should be given to reduce the mounting and unnecessary hysteria.

The lack of knowledge and lack of enforcement surrounding those who have been in contact with the disease are placing ridiculous burdens on private and public health-care providers, who are inundated by anyone who has a sniffle or cough, as well as placing a burden on schools besieged by over-concerned and under-informed parents.

Governments - as the name suggests - are there to lead. If we cannot even receive basic public health information and decisive prevention and isolation measures, how can anyone expect to trust this administration on other issues?

Name and address supplied

I feel that this pneumonia outbreak is spreading because of the poor etiquette of Chinese people.

When I first came to Hong Kong over four years ago, I was shocked to see that when local people cough or sneeze, they do not cover their mouths or noses. Their hands remain at their sides. To this day, this still happens.

In the West, we are brought up to cover our mouths and noses when coughing or sneezing to prevent passing on germs. No wonder this pneumonia has been passed on, and that there are still Tuberculosis cases.

Even now, Chinese children and adults still do not have the manners to use a tissue to cover their mouths and noses. They seem to think a mask will do.

I feel more education is needed. People need to be told to always cover their mouths and noses when coughing and sneezing (even after this outbreak), and that wearing a mask to prevent them catching pneumonia is not much good - it is the people who have coughs or who are sneezing that need to wear a mask.

Margaret Gibson, Sham Tseng



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