Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com or filling in this Google form . Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification. In these days of global crisis, it is vital that we critically re-examine the political and economic foundations of our societies. Many observers agree that the Covid-19 crisis has laid bare the gravest problems facing humankind: environmental destruction and climate change , rampant polarisation and extremism, inequalities in opportunity and health care provision, and growing financial instability. These problems have increased our vulnerability to a global pandemic, and hindered our response to it. Yet most analyses of the Covid-19 crisis have been piecemeal and parochial, reflecting their authors’ nationality or professional background. Or they are little more than potted histories or discussions exploiting the public’s anxieties. In contrast, a new book I recently came across, Covid-19 and the Structural Crises of our Time , offers a comprehensive and cosmopolitan critique of the global economy and society amid the Covid-19 crisis. While I disagree with many of the book’s specific arguments, I welcome and applaud its breadth and reach. The authors, Lim Mah-hui and Michael Heng Siam-Heng, argue that the problems exposed by Covid-19 are inextricably linked, and stem from our reliance on unfettered financial market capitalism. If humanity is to survive, they argue, we must overturn this tyranny, and return to the values that sustained humanity for most of its history. Some elements of their arguments are open to challenge. For example, the climate crisis reflects our reliance on carbon-based growth, which is shared by all major economies rather than based on a particular ideology or economic system. We need a new renewable industrial revolution that is supported by different economic and political systems. Equally, societies of many political and economic orientations are prone to rising polarisation and extremism. And many observers across the political and intellectual spectrum have decried the excesses of global financial speculation, lax monetary policy, uncontrolled “shadow banking”, skyrocketing asset valuations and global indebtedness. In short, we urgently need a public debate which has the scope of Covid-19 and the Structural Crises of our Time . Lim and Heng are absolutely right in their impatience with the status quo, right in their insight that our crises are linked, right in their plea that we must regain control of our collective futures, and surely right in their insistence on global cooperation. In short, we need the audacity to rethink our socioeconomic paradigm. Lim and Heng provide a perfect model for the ambition required. Howard Sereda, London Don’t deny two-year-old in hospital her parents’ visit I want to see my two-year-old daughter. My daughter was born with a very rare genetic disease. Since then, she has been hospitalised, and moved from Tuen Mun Hospital to Queen Mary to the Children’s Hospital. She has had multiple heart surgeries, the last one in December 2020. Since the Omicron variant hit Hong Kong, we have not been allowed to see our daughter at the Children’s Hospital. It has now been more than a month since my wife and I have seen our daughter. The hospital does arrange video calls, but that’s not enough as each time a video call ends, our family experiences emotional trauma. The Hospital Authority policy seems to be that they allow compassionate visits only for critical patients. Since my daughter is clinically stable, the doors are shut to us. I understand that the frequency of our visits would have to be reduced, but why can’t we be allowed visits once a week? Since 2020, I underwent Covid-19 testing every 72 hours to see my daughter, which continued until we were vaccinated in June 2021. I can’t take the trauma of this black-and-white policy any more, and as a non-Chinese person I do not know where else to seek help. Zohaib Malik Mohammad, Yuen Long Fear of Covid-19 looms larger than the virus itself Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor imposes ever-tougher restrictions on all of us, blighting our lives. If you want an indication how hard fear of Covid-19 is hitting the city, ride the MTR and marvel at all the empty seats. See drivers sealed in their own air-conditioned cars wearing masks. Schooling of children has been harmed. The travel industry is as good as dead. Retailers fear they may go the same way. Is all of this justified? At the time of writing on February 15, we had passed 2,000 new cases a day. Two friends have had the infection and both said it was like a mild cold for a few days. Omicron, now dominant, is generally said by scientists to cause milder infection than previous variants. Is our problem not the disease, but the fear? Go to the Hospital Authority’s website to assess the seriousness of this pandemic currently in Hong Kong. How many people are seriously ill in hospitals? Eight are critically ill in a population of 7.6 million according to the Hospital Authority press release on February 15. How many of these people are old, obese or have chronic conditions for some reason and in normal times would be in danger anyway? Shouldn’t we all try for a sense of proportion? Can we stop panicking? Jethro Roger Medcalf, Sai Kung