Coexistence or reset (been plagued by the epidemic for more than two years)

It's the Lunar New Year again, but the atmosphere of the Chinese New Year has already become less and less, and the situation has become worse due to the impact of the epidemic in the past two years. Most of the Chinese New Year activities have been cancelled. This year, buildings in many districts have even been enclosed for several days. What is the mood of the New Year.

Two years ago, when everyone was busy with the New Year's goods, they had to be distracted and put on masks, and they had to pay close attention to the development of the situation, because the news was indistinguishable from true and false. It was only two years ago, and we still had a large number of people we could trust. The media, everyone is still panicking, and finally led to the incident of robbing tissue and toilet paper in this city. Overnight, the whole city could not buy toilet paper! (Note: Before the publication, there was news that due to the recruitment of truck drivers, the quarantine would be strengthened, and the import of vegetables would be affected, so the vegetables (mainly green) in the supermarkets in the city were sold out again!)

Photo by Arya Pratama on Unsplash

For two years, the epidemic has always been one wave after another, and then mutated again and again. Everyone (including the so-called experts) is like a blind man and an elephant. There are different opinions, and there is no clear concept at all. Even how the virus spreads, there is no certainty. . Because the same unit upstairs and downstairs is also infected, it is "vertical transmission". And there are multiple infections on the same floor, so it is "horizontal transmission". Because the diner was sitting close to the door, a person with the bacteria passed by and became infected. Shouldn't it be "airborne"? Passing through the tunnel of the subway station, two people were infected when they met each other, but many people took off their masks and smoked in the street. No smokers have ever been prosecuted or infected for this, but a few hamsters were infected, big wok! The sky is falling!

There is absolutely no strategy for the current epidemic prevention measures, and there is no timetable and roadmap. It has been closed here and there, and there is no evidence to show those risks. For example, if there is no dine-in after 6 p.m., if it is delayed by an hour, what difference will it make? Cinemas and theaters are often the first to be shut down, but there has never been a case of infection in the theater. Although the theater is a sealed space, everyone just sits quietly to watch the movie, and it is forbidden to eat and limit the number of people entering the theater. In fact, it is relatively safe, but every time there is an outbreak, it must be used for surgery.

In the early days of the outbreak, I wrote an article about the situation in Hong Kong and Toronto, because I lived there for a long time, and many friends still live there. When the epidemic spread rapidly, they chose to close the city, all non-essential business and personal activities were suspended, and everyone had to stay at home. Cities in Europe and the United States have different regulations. For example, they can be allowed to go out for a certain number of hours a day, and supermarkets and restaurants (only for takeaways) are open to a limited extent to take care of everyone's daily needs. Other industries that can allow employees to work from home can continue to a limited extent, otherwise they have to suspend work until they can relax, even students. A big city is like an empty city. The government has various subsidy programs to take care of losses in all aspects. Although it is not ideal, at least it can help everyone to tide over the difficulties together.

At that time, Hong Kong experienced robbing masks and toilet paper, but it was just a few beats slow, masks could not be bought, and they even urged everyone not to wear masks. The medical staff warned the medical system of the possible impact and demanded to close the border, but they were steadfastly refusing to wear them. . When the situation worsens, classes will only be suspended, and some services will be suspended, mainly in institutions that are suffering, such as sports fields, libraries, theaters, swimming pools, etc. Some people will work from home, but there is no guidance in other industries. Most people Still crammed into public transport every morning and evening to commute to get off work. It can be said that many people's lives have not been significantly affected. I can still dine out, watch movies, go shopping, work as usual, and I don’t even understand why the number of infections in foreign countries has soared. The only explanation is that many people refused to wear masks. At that time, I was glad that I was in Hong Kong at the time, and I imagined that in summer, the hot weather would bring the epidemic under control and everything would return to normal.

It is a pity that there was a glimmer of hope. With the repeated epidemics, the second wave and the third wave broke out one after another, and in the Christmas and New Year holidays, the whole world fell into this kind of reincarnation, and the big seasons and festivals were cancelled one by one. The most optimistic People are also frustrated. The introduction of vaccines once brought a glimmer of light to everyone, but after all, vaccines were developed in a short period of time, and some of them did not have enough clinical data, and there were negative reactions and even death cases one after another. Many people hesitated and adopted a wait-and-see attitude. These negative effects are not directly related to vaccines. This strategy of promoting vaccines has gone wrong early on, and its integrity has been bankrupt, so the work will be more difficult in the future.

On the other hand, foreign countries were taken lightly at first. Just like the SARS in 2003, they thought that it only affected the Asian region, or even only Asians. It was only when it became aggressive and Hollywood stars and some political figures were infected that it was taken seriously. The spread was too fast. Helpless, everyone shut down the city. This kind of countermeasure is obviously not long-term. When the number of infections dropped, some people asked for reopening. As a result, there were outbreaks after reopening, shutdown, and reopening. Finally, the vaccine was ushered in. Is overwhelmed. However, after a certain number of people have been vaccinated, the government has relatively relaxed restrictions. For example, in the United Kingdom, the Premier League can be played behind closed doors, and everyone can watch it on TV. On the day when the lifting of the mask order was announced, there were no empty seats in the bar and restaurant, and everyone was really depressed for too long. Since then, the Tokyo Olympics have been held under restrictions, and there has been a threat of a variant virus again. The government has tightened some restrictions, but the scale is far looser than before. For example, theaters can still be opened, but the number of participants is limited to 50%. Because everyone knows that they have been troubled for too long and have reached a critical point, and the data and actual facts show that the condition of the infected people is controllable and the impact is relatively mild, so the government will not make big moves to introduce restrictions, even governments of many countries. We are ready to completely lift all restrictions and allow everyone to return to normal life.

On the phone with friends in Toronto last week, their lifestyle patterns, especially around Christmas, are basically the same as before. He told me about a friend who went on a cruise vacation, went to the Dominican Republic for two weeks, and just got home. A Thai colleague of his company took advantage of the year-end holiday to return to Thailand to visit relatives. When he came back, as a citizen, he only needed to be tested at the time of entry to enter the country without quarantine. With the reopening of the U.S.-Canada border, many people took a long trip. Even if they didn’t want to cross the border, they flew to the other side of the country, such as Vancouver, to visit relatives. Now, as long as the government announces the complete lifting of the ban, they will return to normal life, and if they are sick, they will see a doctor and take medicine.

On the contrary, now Hong Kong has only said that the city may be locked down. If there is a big enemy, the restrictions will be strengthened and tightened in an all-round way. It really feels like a balance of time and space. Personally, I think that in the mainland, you may not necessarily know the situation in foreign countries, you can only trust the government, but in Hong Kong, you can still know the world. All over the world, a phone call or a text message can tell the truth. Everyone knows what "coexistence" or "clearing" means, but they don't even allow discussion. It's hard to convince the public. But after two years, can you still see the face of the regime clearly? Otherwise, during the epidemic, some places will wantonly make indiscriminate complaints, suppress the media and civil society, "improve" the political system and elections, and then blame the citizens for not cooperating in the fight against the epidemic.

In the past two years, the Hong Kong side has become worse and worse. Some foreign places have lifted all restrictions, and a considerable number of them are ready to follow in the next few months. The world is about to get out of trouble, return to daily life, and be free to travel. But it is fairly certain that they will not choose to come to Hong Kong.