When Betty Tung Chiu Hung-ping marched off into Sars-hit public housing estates on Sunday, many people felt she was overdoing things.
Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's wife was gloved, rubber-booted, hair-netted and wrapped in plastic, and her N95 mask was taped tight against her face. We like to think of her as 'Hermetic Betty'.
The image captured by hundreds of photographers was supposed to reassure us the virus - which has made a ditherer of Mr Tung, leader - was no match for Mrs Tung, housewife. She and her crew of Red Cross workers were going to burst into Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate, near infection-hit Amoy Gardens, to hand out masks and teach residents all about disinfectant.
Only, it didn't really work out that way.
Early in the week, newspaper cartoons showed Space-girl Betty scaring the living daylights out of elderly residents trying to enjoy their Sunday game of mahjong.
Then came the Internet insults. On Tuesday, there was a picture of Mrs Tung as a masked hero cum Ninja Turtle whizzing across the Web.
