THE E-MAIL FORUM
Q Is Hong Kong ready for a second Sars outbreak?
The commotion caused by the latest Sars false alarm shows us that we learned very little from the last experience and are still vulnerable in the event of another Sars attack. Nothing of significance has been done to change the structure of the Hospital Authority, which was rightly lambasted for mistakes committed in its handling of Sars.
This time, its alarm system created more chaos than order. It is a disgrace and it reinforces my impression that Hong Kong has been losing its professionalism, which it holds as an edge over the mainland and many developing countries.
But this is a deeper and broader issue to be dealt with some other time. I want to focus on Sars because I am sure we are not prepared for the next Sars, or epidemic, and Hong Kong's economy will go under.
Sars is not the cause of our economic downturn, but a second attack on a similar scale could cripple us forever. We suffered such huge economic losses largely because we have not seen Sars as a psychological or public relations battle to keep the community calm and ward off criticism from our foreign competitors.