LettersThe benefits of Hong Kong’s ‘pandemic theatre’ mustn’t be overlooked
- Readers discuss the success of Hong Kong’s current pandemic measures and how quarantine can be made healthier, safer and less harmful to the environment
Following the tragic plane hijackings on Sept 11, 2001, airports in America and around the world soon stepped up their security arrangements: every passenger and their luggage were now scanned and checked, and vigilant-looking customs agents stood at every corner.
The problem was that while psychologically reassuring security theatre could defend against accidental tubes of toothpaste, no terrorist resolved to go out with a bang was ever going to be deterred by a handheld metal detector. Yet 20 years on, few question airport security measures.
In Covid-19, Hong Kong faces another determined agent of destruction and has come up with a similar solution.
Much like with terrorism, those fighting Covid-19 face the possibility of the cure being worse than the disease itself. Hardline measures like citywide lockdowns and month-long quarantines can only be imposed at great financial, social and political cost, as Hong Kong observed.
Yet the nature of contagion renders half-measures medically ineffective: much as terrorists will find a way past security, as long as the R0 (the average number of people who will contract the disease from one bearer) of the pandemic remains above 1, behavioural countermeasures only serve to drag out its geometric growth.