Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor expressed gratitude to the central government for the country’s unconditional support and pledged to discharge the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government’s primary responsibility of overcoming the fifth wave of the COVID-19 outbreak in her recent interview with Xinhua News Agency. It is comforting that Lam identified areas for improvement and emphasized that all 180,000-plus civil servants and 60 government departments in Hong Kong now fully recognize that we are at war against the virus, and that our strategy will need to continually evolve and be refined.
We can all perhaps relate to drivers who do not appreciate backseat passengers repeatedly asking “Are we there yet?” and to perfectionists who do not appreciate family members nagging them to prematurely announce their chosen path. We are all equal as human beings with emotions, albeit not always applying the same set of logic as we operate with different data sets limited by our life experience and exposure, and may not share the same “common sense”. We could be put at ease and feel more in control, and less powerless, if we are all equipped with the current version of the important plans that affect us. It would be great if ordinary residents can be equipped with the city’s latest plan to fight against the fifth wave of the COVID-19 attack, and we can surely appreciate and accept the proviso that such a plan will need to be constantly varied as we respond to changes around us.
The local government has failed to prevent the spread of the virus, but it does not serve our collective interest if we get into a negative feedback loop
It is particularly frightening for families with older adults and young children being invaded by the virus. Can the SAR government equip us with all the data we need to make informed decisions for our own health, family, children’s schooling, work, business and enterprise survival planning in a more proactive, transparent and timely manner? Can we ordinary residents do more to encourage family members and friends to be fully vaccinated and equip the decision-making civil servants with all the COVID-19-related data points in a more proactive, transparent and timely manner to help them help us? The local government has failed to prevent the spread of the virus, but it does not serve our collective interest if we get into a negative feedback loop. None of us wants to wander off into the dark and feel the fear of being lost in the woods. The popular navigation apps on our smartphones guide us to our destination on the shortest path with the least congestion because the apps upload each of our location data as we move so the system has a large body of data to guide us. It is useful and you did give consent, right, for the greater good? All for one, and one for all.
Do not underestimate each small contribution we make to save our loved ones and even strangers. Let’s start with timely contribution of COVID-19 data points through the proactive and honest use of the LeaveHomeSafe app, which already has over 7.5 million downloads and over 110,000 participating venues, and report our own positive case in a timely manner at www.chp.hk/ratp if we have tested positive for COVID-19 using a rapid antigen test. Even if you feel largely recovered, the data you contribute can help save lives, and the updating of a better plan for Hong Kong. “Garbage in, garbage out” is an axiom reminding computer scientists that the output of the program is limited by poor quality input. Bits of data can form a data stream, and real time monitoring of data streams allows decision-makers to react and respond to a crisis much better.
So when and how will the borders be reopened with the Chinese mainland and elsewhere with quarantine-free travel facilitating family reunions, international schooling, business trips, conferences, tourism, shopping, breaking bread with friends and normal life? Can we not just use the mainland’s contact-tracing apps, and follow all the protocols on the mainland and be done with COVID-19? If only it were that easy. The mainland’s socialist system and its supportive residents allow them to work with live data, make more informed decisions, follow through better, deploy resources quicker, have fuller cross-sector participation, build a consensus faster, successfully overcome crises, and set and achieve short- to long-term plans. Our city’s “laissez-faire” capitalist system has its unique advantages but also shortcomings, as shown in the way it has seemingly halfheartedly tackled COVID-19, swinging between “living with the virus” and “dynamic zero infection”.
Our country’s leading medical expert from the National Health Commission and chair professor at Tsinghua University, Dr Liang Wannian, visited Hong Kong and shared the mainland’s experience for the SAR government to draw reference. Liang explained that the “dynamic zero infection” strategy is not to be misunderstood as a “no infection” expectation. Liang explained that the essence of the strategy is to be alerted of, identify, and reduce infections as fast and accurately as possible, and protect those who can be easily infected. Liang urged us to raise the vaccination rate among local residents and focus on treating the severely ill patients by pooling our best experts and resources, with the aim of reducing infections, serious cases and deaths. Liang is humble in saying that he could not yet make definitive anti-pandemic recommendations because he still needs to learn more about the local situation. In my capacity as a Hong Kong deputy to the National People’s Congress, I am doing my part to secure resources for the community and provide my researched recommendations reflecting Hong Kong residents’ views and wisdom to the highest-level leadership of our country. I am also working with some like-minded friends to see if we can deploy voice recognition systems and chatbots to reduce the waiting time of the relevant hotlines, to distribute donated resources in “a smarter way” to avoid overlapping, to share but not impose ideas with the officials and experts so they can better help residents.
Meanwhile, those propagating rumors or fake news with the purpose of gaining from the pandemic either politically or financially should be condemned and held criminally responsible; they are trying to incite hatred against private doctors and the civil servants who have heeded the authority’s call to join the pandemic fight. Those who leak out-of-context work-in-progress COVID-19 defense plans have directly resulted in panic buying at supermarkets, and exposed the residents to heightened risks of infection, and deprived those who do not have flexible work hours from providing for the family. Hong Kong residents definitely have no reason to worry about the supply of food and daily necessities as we are part of a country whose food security is protected by the 2015 National Security Law and ensured by well-designed national five-year plans.
To my knowledge, there has never been any plan to impose a citywide lockdown that would forbid residents from replenishing essential household supplies and the delivery of essential services. There is no plan to invoke Article 18 of the Basic Law to declare a state of emergency to suspend “one country, two systems”, nor was there any serious discussion on amending the National Security Law for Hong Kong to cope with the fifth wave of COVID-19. Those feeding mistrust into the system could lead us into an infinite loop resulting in a double bind where we all lose. The virus transcends politics, and the community needs to rebuild trust.
Our city has the full backing of our motherland under “one country, two systems”. This is again reaffirmed by senior central government officials in their recent meetings with Hong Kong deputies to the National People’s Congress during the two sessions in Beijing. The central government gives us unreserved support in fighting COVID-19. What we need to do now to win the battle is to work together and make good use of the mainland resources and experts. Calm our minds as we team up to create the rainbow after the storm.
The author is a Hong Kong deputy to the National People’s Congress.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
