LettersHong Kong third wave: follow China in pandemic fight

2-MIN READ2-MIN

US President Donald Trump catches a ball while hosting youth baseball players at the White House on July 23. While the US government has focused on political games, China has taken the Covid-19 pandemic seriously and brought it under control. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:15am, 28 Jul 2020Updated: 7:15am, 28 Jul 2020

Rishi Teckchandani’s call on how lives matter more than the economy should sound as loud as a gong during this Covid-19 crisis for Hong Kong (“Coronavirus: save lives first, then worry about the economy”, July 25). However, it is not just “millionaires and billionaires” who are affected; many low-budget cafes and diners are struggling to survive during this long, dreadful pandemic. We see no light at the end of this long tunnel, faced as we are with distressing news and rising numbers of infections and deaths every day.

How did mainland China get the pandemic under control so quickly? One reason is its authoritarian approach. Civilians were encouraged to monitor each other, and the authorities made sure to seal those people under quarantine in their homes.

Armed with an abundance of masks, medical resources and resolute community spirit, China successfully contained the spread of the virus, and is now acting swiftly in cities where it has reappeared. The rebound in China’s economy has also been rapid, as shown in its manufacturing data and share prices.

Meanwhile, in the US, Covid-19 is still going strong – as an egotistical nation displays no apparent scientific approach, with a pretentious president whose promised vaccine is still months away and whose re-election prospects are fading fast.

Had US President Donald Trump shown a little humanity and acknowledged science is not his speciality earlier in this ordeal, the stock market would have reached a historic high months ago and he would have been looking at a second term in November.

Edmond Pang, Fanling