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Hong Kong leader makes personal plea for end to divisive comments about medical workers from mainland China aiding Covid-19 fight
- Carrie Lam calls for greater understanding by public and media over work being carried out by the visiting doctors, nurses and other health care professionals
- Her appeal comes after chart showing breakdown of duties for nurses at AsiaWorld-Expo circulates online and further fuels debate over their treatment
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Hong Kong’s leader has made an emotional plea to journalists and the public to stop making divisive comments about medical volunteers from mainland China helping to combat the Covid-19 pandemic that has overwhelmed the health care system.
Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Friday sought to quash speculation that the visiting professionals were given only menial work, and also dismissed suggestions press freedom was under attack after a television station apologised over a reporter’s question on how patient complaints against mainland staff would be handled.
Some in the pro-Beijing camp had complained that such questions incited hatred against the mainland team.
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Lam appealed to the public and journalists to bear in mind that the medical professionals had made sacrifices in leaving their families to come to Hong Kong, where they worked at a makeshift hospital in heavy protection gear for hours on end to save lives.
“So why do we want to make this fuss and make divisive comments about the Hong Kong medical personnel and the mainland medical personnel,” she said.
Journalists could ask questions to understand more about the workers’ deployment, their contributions, but “don’t make it into another political issue or related to media freedom and so on”, she said.
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