Originally Posted by
dr dre
Ever the apologist it seems dr dre.
I’m not going to quibble over whether it was the 31st Dec or a day or so later but just as with SARS, we in HK began to see a few column centimetres appearing beyond page 3 of the local press saying there were unusual respiratory cases appearing on the Mainland.
Again as with SARS, the news slowly gained more coverage and got closer to the front page of the papers. It was early January and locals started to don masks more frequently.
Mid January approached and concerns were so high that I also decided it might be the right thing to wear a mask at work to respect my local colleagues.
Being a frequent flyer, I was somewhat surprised to see that QANTAS cabin crews seemed oblivious to the number of pax getting on their flights wearing masks. The CX girls all knew something was up and they were already wearing masks very early on. Meanwhile, despite the Oz govt saying they were onto it early, I probably did 4 or 5 weekly trips into Australia , along with hundreds of Mainlanders who transited thru HK before there was even a hint of concern shown. I recall even having to ask somebody on arrival where they wanted me to put my health declaration and they basically pointed to a table where I should toss it.
By the 3rd week of January it was all but confirmed that something seriously wrong was occurring in Wuhan and locals were calling on the HK Govt to close the border with the Mainland.
With Lunar New Year approaching on the 25th and Mainlanders beginning their ritual mass exodus, the Central Govt did NOTHING to prevent at least 5 million travellers from leaving the region to other parts of the world.
I don’t give a $hit what your vlogger says in his typical supercilious manner (heard many of his before on other topics) , the fact is the Central Govt knew damn well that there was something happening but they were too afraid to tell 1.3 billion people they couldn’t celebrate Lunar New Year as normal.
I’m not saying it definitely originated there but the rest of the World is now paying for their inaction.
The resemblance between the handling of this and Chernobyl is striking for exactly the same reasons.