Asian AngleWhat my coronavirus tour taught me: Hong Kong is stoic, Italy laughs, Abu Dhabi swabs and Malaysia lags

When fate intervened, one writer found himself travelling between four locations in different stages of the fight against the coronavirus

From annoyance to denial to shock and acceptance, here’s what he found

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Pedestrians in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, following the outbreak of the new coronavirus. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 8:15am, 17 Mar 2020Updated: 12:35am, 19 Mar 2020

As fate would have it, in the past month I have travelled to Italy as the coronavirus was accelerating from nuisance to epidemic; Hong Kong, where the virus has been held in check; Malaysia, where numbers were less stable than appearances suggested; and the UAE, still in the early stages of the virus.

Reflecting on these experiences, my impression is that the public in these countries is at various stages of a journey from annoyance to denial to shock and acceptance. After my snapshot visits I believe this is a time for compliance and not for scepticism, a time to assert the rights of the group rather than those of the individual.

In late February I was visiting my in-laws in central Italy. Cases began bubbling up in the north. My in-laws like to have a TV (in Italian, tee-vu) on throughout the day in the living room. Quickly the virus was all the television channels were talking about. The coverage was not in the least informative, it usually featured panels of people shouting over one another, or interviewers who valued conflict over clarity. This empty coverage fed the scepticism that many people felt about the virus – it’s just a flu, it’s an overreaction, they’re feeding us lies! This was further nourished by the profound contempt – even hatred – that many Italians feel towards their federal politicians.

A woman waves an Italian flag in Naples, Italy, amid a coronavirus lockdown. Photo: Reuters

I too was sceptical towards the virus. On the night of February 28 I was part of a stand-up comedy show in Rome. Inevitably, many of the jokes were about the virus and the audience was receptive to them; they needed a release from this induced anxiety, the non-stop media drumbeat of corona-corona-corona-Don’t Panic!-corona-Don’t-corona-Panic! Panic!-corona-corona-etc. One joke I wrote for the show was that this was the first disease in world history that more people were sick of than sick from. At the time that was how people felt, though a week later the sentiment would seem ridiculous.

On February 29 my wife and I flew back home to Abu Dhabi. I had to leave that same evening for Hong Kong, where a friend’s illness had turned for the worse.