Coronavirus and a growing debacle

Hong Kong has descended into a bizarre level of madness that is difficult to comprehend.  The tragedy of it all is that the local population are all generally opposed to everything that's happening, but instead they have all been dragged along for a horrific ride by bureaucrats who don't seem capable to implementing, let alone making, any positive decisions.

It's been frustrating over the last few months as the local government have constantly shifted and changed their requirements for how we will live our lives going forward.  Initially, most people seemed to agree that the stringent measures taken were acceptable.  With no vaccine and the dangers to both individuals and the health care system, it was all deemed necessary.  That's all changed now.  With ready and abundant access to vaccines and the foreign experience showing that the new omicron strain isn't anywhere near as much of a cause for concern in comparison to its predecessors, the rationale for the continued actions has now become increasingly less justifiable.

The next challenge for the people of Hong Kong was now "will they, won't they" game the government seemed to be playing with a full city lockdown.  Initially, all the public announcements were that there would be no lockdown, then suddenly the Health Secretary decided to declare that a lockdown was being considered.

Given the inability of the government to manage even the small Penny's Bay quarantine facility, people were unsurprisingly lacking in the necessary confidence in the government to be able to provide for their needs during any such lockdown.  So the of course, the panic buying  has started.

 

Shelves are being completely cleared.  Fresh produce and meat are sold out.  The fear that there will be an inability by the government to maintain a supply of food to Hong Kong is real and so the people are reacting accordingly by stockpiling themselves.

I wasn't going into the full panic buying mode that some were (not yet anyway), but I still thought it was prudent to get myself prepared.  Fruit and vegetables didn't seem to be the best idea given they probably wouldn't last until the date of any lockdown starting, but stocking up on some non-perishable items seemed to be a good way of providing myself with some insurance, just in case the worst case occurred.

It seems strange and it is definitely depressing having to deal with all of this two years into the pandemic, particularly when the rest of the world is now slowly moving on and getting back to normality.