Opinion | As Hong Kong fights to contain the coronavirus, Carrie Lam must not distance herself from her public

Hats off to Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch of the Centre for Health Protection, who has become the face of Hong Kong’s war on Covid-19 and who has been a voice of calm in these challenging times. With the pandemic claiming too many lives, political talking heads have been looking to inflame public opinion, playing the blame game. And so Dr Chuang’s careful use of words at the daily press briefings are not to be taken for granted.

Much of the ugliness we are seeing daily from the most powerful people in the world is a classic political decoy – because so far, they have failed every step of the way, when it comes to crisis management.

Prevention? Failed. Preparedness? Failed. Response? Failing. Reconstruction? That may well be a silver lining, but we’re not even through the worst of this crisis yet, since researchers estimate that the United States – which now has the most Covid-19 cases in the world – will not hit epidemic peak until next month, at the earliest.

And so it was quite a shock to see her re-emerge last week to wring her hands over those who have been out playing ball or eating noodles when they should have been at home, under quarantine.