Misguided government’s cure may be worse than disease; we must learn to live with Covid-19

^{Lan Kwai Fung closed during lockdown Photo: Straits Times}

A growing storm of protest over the Hong Kong Government’s Covid-19 restrictions unites business owners, teachers, parents, commentators and the ordinary person on the street. The cry is going up, “Is the cure worse than the disease?”

“Our restaurants are struggling. We stare into the cataclysm of bankruptcy every day. Our staff have all had their pay cut. How long can we survive?” This from Ben, a director of a medium-sized restaurant chain who asked not be be identified. “I haven’t got Board permission to speak to the press.”

Sarah, mother of two boys, fears their school’s closure may mean their education will be stunted with long-term consequences and their socialising skills will not develop normally. Alan, Anna, and Rose run bars that have been closed since December by Government order. They are much liked characters in Sai Kung where many in the community worry about them and wish them well.

^{Philip Bowring Photo: Yale-NUS College}

Meanwhile, the eminent commentator Philip Bowring has weighed in with a scathing column in the SCMP. He joins Lionel Shriver of the Spectator and Erik Berglof of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in writing that harsh government restrictions on their people are not the answer. We have to learn to live with this disease.

First excerpts from Philip, one of Hong Kong’s most perceptive journalists: Hong Kong officials’ obsession with reducing case numbers to zero means that they have paid scant regard to society’s broader interests. School closures, business collapses, unemployment, reduced incomes are impacting most people. The cure may be worse than the disease.

Hong Kong has seen 167 deaths from covid-19 at last count while total deaths in the period were 49,000. “There is scant evidence that covid has raised the death rate,” Philip wrote. Deaths from the virus are tiny compared to pneumonia, winter influenza, tuberculosis and malaria.

“Idiotic decisions (have been made) by the Hong Kong Government including closing beaches and forcing restaurants to shut just as offices are closing, leading to crowded streets and public transport.” Philip said the three-week quarantine for all arrivals is far out of all proportion to the risk. This reveals “a Government determined to show Beijing how tough it can be, regardless of the interests of its own community.”

“There is no denying the global scale of the pandemic and the suffering of those with serious and prolonged cases. But unless kept in perspective, the cure may be worse than the disease and may cause untold mental health damage in particular.”

^{Lionel Shriver Photo: Wikipedia}

Lionel Shriver, author of “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, has fulminated in column after column in the Spectator against the lunacies of government restrictions on Covid-19. She says keeping the public scared will make it seem utter devastation of the economy was worthwhile. “. . . We are going to permit a pandemic with relatively mild lethality, in the context of historical infectious diseases, to utterly transform our lives until the end of time — and largely for the worse.”

Lionel gets really incensed. “We can’t have public transport any more. We can’t fly any more. We’re to expect that we will never again eat in financially viable restaurants, never again drink in crowded pubs. We’re meant to say good-bye to the performing arts forever.

“Meanwhile we are meant to keep regarding one another as walking contagions. I have not been shy about sharing my opinion that this lockdown nonsense has been one of the gravest mistakes ever made. At risk populations could have been easily identified and protected (and they weren’t) leaving the rest of us to get on with our lives. Instead we have all been co-opted into mass hysteria. The ‘new normal’ proposes to extend that hysteria for ever.

“You’d think nobody had ever got sick before. Get a grip. Sod the ‘new normal’. Give us back the old normal, and as fast as possible.”

^{Erick Berglof Photo: The Asset}

Erick Berglof, chief economist at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, writes “blanket lockdowns are not a sustainable solution. Few countries . . . can afford to lock down their economies. . . The pandemic is fueling inequality both among and within countries. Wealth is the most potent protection from Covid-19. But such inequalities weaken the global community’s resilience. The most effective interventions are those that protect the vulnerable.”

Erik wrote that in time the world may have the full toolkit to eradicate the virus. “In the meantime, we should start placing our hope on a quick return to ‘normal’, and start developing comprehensive, creative and cooperative strategies for living with Covid-19.”