{"id":2576,"date":"2021-11-03T15:39:01","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T07:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boasecohencollins.com\/?p=2576"},"modified":"2021-11-03T15:39:04","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T07:39:04","slug":"the-mighty-pen-writes-a-few-wrongs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boasecohencollins.com\/zh-hans\/%e7%bd%91%e8%aa%8c\/the-mighty-pen-writes-a-few-wrongs\/","title":{"rendered":"The mighty pen writes a few wrongs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hong Kong, 3 November 2021: <\/strong>Who doesn\u2019t have a sneaking admiration for Viz<\/em>, the British comic for (not so) grown-ups that is full of profane, childish cartoons and surreal humour? The readers\u2019 letters are legendary, to wit: \u201cI was delighted when the kind people at the Inland Revenue wrote to me recently telling me that my tax return was \u2018outstanding\u2019, particularly since I can\u2019t even remember sending it in.\u201d Or this: \u201cI heard on the news that the January storms had cost this country a billion pounds. What an utter waste of money. If anything, they did more harm than good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I couldn\u2019t help but think of these gems upon reading the now-famous missive in the South China Morning Post<\/em> last Friday from our Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan. Her efforts to portray this administration\u2019s latest draconian public health measures \u2013 implemented in pursuit of its \u201czero Covid\u201d strategy \u2013 as logical and science-based were worthy of Viz<\/em>\u2019s inimitable brand of irreverence and satire. Except she was serious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Health Secretary was responding with great displeasure to criticism from University of Hong Kong epidemiologist Professor Ben Cowling over our government\u2019s new policy of imposing an extra two weeks\u2019 quarantine on recovered Covid-19 patients. Professor Cowling \u2013 familiar to followers of this column for his considered and sensible thoughts regarding anti-pandemic measures in his monthly podcasts with Dr David Owens \u2013 had taken to Twitter (@bencowling88<\/a>) to call the new requirement \u201cridiculous\u201d and \u201cunethical\u201d, adding it was a \u201cwaste of resources and actively harming the patient with no community benefit to offset against\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not so, countered our Health Secretary, who wrote to the Post<\/em> letters page: \u201cQuestioning longer isolation of patients to further reduce risk of virus shedding is premised on a small risk being acceptable. This goes against the government\u2019s zero-Covid goal, which aims to prevent importation of cases and spread of the virus in the community. More importantly, measures taken by the government for the community\u2019s interest must not be called \u2018unethical\u2019.\u201d Oops, someone isn\u2019t happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be fair, Professor Cowling \u2013 who was awarded an MBE last June for services to public health and his research on Covid-19 \u2013 was tweeting towards the end of his 21-day quarantine, having returned to Hong Kong from the UK, and was probably somewhat irritated. On reflection, he might reconsider his use of the word \u201cunethical\u201d. But, overall, his comments have my support and seemingly that of the vast majority of Post<\/em> readers, who responded online by endorsing his views and heaping ridicule on our government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Post<\/em> columnist Cliff Buddle (soon to feature as a guest on our Law & More podcast, watch this space) correctly observed in his excellent opinion piece<\/a> at the weekend, our city is moving from a \u201czero case\u201d strategy to one of \u201czero risk\u201d. And I\u2019m not the only citizen baffled by this approach and bemused at the epic inconsistencies it generates. So our Health Secretary wishes to eliminate risk in our society? Well, we have had an unusual number of hiking fatalities this year, let\u2019s stop people walking in the hills. Some 59 citizens have perished on our roads in the first eight months of 2021, so let\u2019s outlaw all non-essential traffic and make the speed limit 20km\/h. Life involves risk, so let\u2019s ban life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that\u2019s off my chest, I should stress there are some new regulations which I believe are sensible, even overdue. Having already made the LeaveHomeSafe contact tracing app mandatory for entry to all government buildings, our leaders will soon make it compulsory for any type of restaurant, according to pro-establishment legislator Michael Tien. (On this topic and in another one of those \u201cyou couldn\u2019t make this up\u201d stories, three government employees were among five people arrested on Monday for using a fake version of the app as they went into work.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, we are told Hong Kong airport is planning to segregate passengers on mainland China flights from other international travellers in an effort to prevent cross-infection. An unprecedented action, but not one I\u2019m against. Meanwhile, senior business executives and most diplomatic personnel will be stripped of their quarantine exemption privileges from 12 November. If we\u2019re serious about \u201czero Covid\u201d, this is only fair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least Hongkongers (well, the younger ones, anyway) were able to throw off their Covid concerns by celebrating Halloween at the weekend. Party districts such as Lan Kwai Fong and SoHo were packed with revellers in fancy dress. But it turned into a night of horror for four taxi drivers who were detained for overcharging passengers by a posse of undercover police, including one dressed as a vampire and another in a Squid Games<\/em> pink jumpsuit. An arresting sight, indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You only wish our health officials could be so innovative in persuading \u2013 or coercing \u2013 citizens to get their Covid-19 jabs. Amid our waning inoculation programme, one sorry statistic stands out and illustrates just how far we have fallen behind much of the developed world in our pandemic response: less than 15% of this city\u2019s residents aged 80 and over are fully vaccinated. Embarrassing. This is one public health action Professor Sophia Chan simply cannot defend, no matter how indignantly she writes to the South China Morning Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You will hear from me again in two weeks. Meantime, stay safe and well, everybody!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colin Cohen<\/strong>
Senior Partner<\/strong>
Boase Cohen & Collins<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hong Kong, 3 November 2021: Who doesn\u2019t have a sneaking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-54"],"yoast_head":"\nThe mighty pen writes a few wrongs - \u5e03\u9ad8\u6c5f\u5f8b\u5e08\u884c<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boasecohencollins.com\/zh-hans\/%e7%bd%91%e8%aa%8c\/the-mighty-pen-writes-a-few-wrongs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"zh_CN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The mighty pen writes a few wrongs - \u5e03\u9ad8\u6c5f\u5f8b\u5e08\u884c\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hong Kong, 3 November 2021: Who doesn\u2019t have a sneaking […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.boasecohencollins.com\/zh-hans\/%e7%bd%91%e8%aa%8c\/the-mighty-pen-writes-a-few-wrongs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u5e03\u9ad8\u6c5f\u5f8b\u5e08\u884c\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-03T07:39:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-03T07:39:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.boasecohencollins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/EIGHTYcov_PHOTO2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1302\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"618\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Niall Donnelly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"\u4f5c\u8005\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Niall Donnelly\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"\u9884\u8ba1\u9605\u8bfb\u65f6\u95f4\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 \u5206\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boasecohencollins.com\/zh-hans\/%e7%bd%91%e8%aa%8c\/the-mighty-pen-writes-a-few-wrongs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.boasecohencollins.com\/zh-hans\/%e7%bd%91%e8%aa%8c\/the-mighty-pen-writes-a-few-wrongs\/\",\"name\":\"The mighty pen writes a few wrongs - 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