A spokesperson of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region said on Sunday it is “shocking and shameful” that a small number of people in Hong Kong put the lives of the general public at risk by trying to sabotage cooperation between the SAR and the mainland in the fight against the latest flare-up of COVID-19, using various excuses. Indeed, anyone who has his or her heart in the right place, who has reverence for morality, humanity and life, must have been shocked by the political zealots’ and selfish medical professionals’ preference for personal benefits over the common good, and specifically, over the protection of residents’ health and lives.
The city’s facilities and public sector healthcare system tasked with coping with the COVID-19 pandemic have been overstretched and are on the verge of collapse while new infections keep rising, with another 145 cases reported on Monday, the sixth consecutive day of a three-digit spike in cases.
It makes perfect sense for Hong Kong to seek help from mainland health authorities, who have successfully brought the pandemic under control on the mainland, and can spare some anti-epidemic capacity for Hong Kong. As a matter of fact, the COVID-19 testing services provided by two mainland firms recently have greatly boosted the city’s capacity to conduct mass testing, which has proved to be an effective strategy to cut off the transmission chains by helping trace the asymptomatic patients and thus contain the spread of the novel coronavirus in Germany, Iceland, South Korea, and some cities on the Chinese mainland. It is safe to assume that most Hong Kong people welcome and are grateful to the central government’s offer of further help for Hong Kong, including the provision of medical supplies, medical facilities and equipment, and even the dispatching of mainland medical professionals to the city upon request.
Yet what is a logical move to seek much-needed outside help has been vilified by political fanatics as arrangements for “collecting personal information, particularly genetic information” of Hong Kong residents for mainland authorities. More jaw-dropping is the claim that mainland testing firms “may spread the pandemic” in Hong Kong.
Equally disgusting are some selfish medical professionals’ apparent attempts to preempt any potential government move to tap the help of mainland medical professionals, with ridiculous excuses such as “mainland healthcare professionals cannot communicate in English” and “such practices are not in compliance with local regulations and codes of practice”. The fact is, mainland medical teams sent out to many foreign countries have done a great job in helping their host countries contain the spread of COVID-19.
The political zealots and those selfish medical professionals have something in common — both demonstrate a brazen contempt for morality and humanity. The only difference is that the former have prioritized partisan interests, whereas the latter still cling to their notorious protectionism amid a raging pandemic at the expense of the common good.
