Letters | Hong Kong’s Covid-19 ‘partygate’ is the result of double standards in public health messaging
- Readers discuss the implicit messaging that the powerful can escape the city’s stringent Covid-19 restrictions, the need for home quarantine, approving vaccines for young children, and embracing Omicron
Many of Hong Kong’s sons and daughters cannot return from abroad to see their families for Lunar New Year. While small businesses buckle under restrictions, the government has let vested interests drift through without much difficulty. What effect does that have other than emboldening the powerful to test their luck?
Fairness and the rule of law require more than an after-the-fact slap on the wrist. They demand a solemn reflection of the duties of the government towards the people and an ironclad resolve not to ignore its own pronouncements. Although the officials involved will face punishment, their audacity in violating public health guidance in the first place might send Hong Kong’s Covid-19 numbers to the stratosphere – little solace for ordinary Hongkongers who spent the past two years being prudent.
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Return of Hong Kong’s social distancing restrictions deals heavy blow to restaurants
Beyond embracing their own complicity, the government must close existing loopholes and encourage conformity at the highest levels. If it wants to bludgeon the population with the world’s strictest Covid-19 restrictions, it must bludgeon everyone, rich and poor alike.