While most of the world is moving on from a zero-tolerance approach to coronavirus, Hong Kong is remaining steadfast, and some Cathay Pacific employees are suffering the consequences of that right now.
Continue reading: Ouch: Cathay Pacific Crews Put Into Quarantine Camp For 21 Days, As A Precaution
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It is completely unreasonable for even a confirmed positive person to be forced into jail. Having a virus with over 99% survivial rate doesn't warrant losing your basic rights
Covid Zero has never and will never work. It's time we embrace this as the endemic that it is.
B... b...but weren't they vaccinated???
Pretty soon you're going to run out of the unvaccinated to scapegoat. Then what?
maybe they did not wear their masks? masks save lives they are so important in our fight against this virus.
Hong Kong has decided that being close to China is more important than being an international city, so they're doing everything in their power to get China to fully reopen with Hong Kong. That means following the absurd COVID-zero policy of mainland China. Given the low effectiveness of Chinese vaccines, it's unlikely China can or will abandon their COVID-zero policy any time soon.
Hong Kong is effectively dead for anyone outside the mainlands for the next year or two, at the very least.
I thought Germany had this thing totally and completely handed with their untold levels of efficiency, social cohesion, and robust vaccine rollout... who would have thunk..... or maybe the population level of immunity is far too low and the vaccine effectiveness is waning.... But hey, Im sure they'll get the policy right this time
craziness and overkill only in Communists or severe Socialists government controlled countries,,Hope we never get there in the US....BUT
I think there was a more moderate way (and less divisive) way forward for Hong Kong, but I also think it is beyond Carrie Lam's capabilities. All that is besides the point, I'm simply offering practical advice to people who are considering visiting Hong Kong as a tourist: Don't count on it for the next 1-2 years.
"Masks are however good for virtue signaling."
Like constantly showing up in forums, spreading misinformation about masks, so you feel better about yourself?
As someone who desperately misses HK, I find myself selfishly hoping they lose control of COVID (like Australia / New Zealand) so they decide to go the other way and reopen to the West. Sorry in advance if that sounds very wrong!
Turk,
Exactly, so what was the purpose of your 760k US comment then (other than a misplaced deflection)?
"the airline is taking some serious precautions" --> This is not Cathay Pacific's choice, its the HK government and their overly-cautious CHP (Centre for Health Protection)
Ahh but Pete, more now have been lost under Biden than Trump and that’s with vaccines and therapeutics. Failing miserably!
So other people can be forced to be exposed to something that has a 1% chance of killing them so that one person can have the right to do whatever they want if they're positive? Interesting basic right.
Hong Kong was forced by China to give up the 'one country, two systems' policy that was agreed with the British at the handover some 25 years ago. It's a hollow shell.
Hong Kong didn't have any choice in this matter. Hong Kong didn't decide anything. Mainland China decided a lot and pushed their agenda quite agressively. Please look up news articles about Hong Kong riots and Hong Kong elections in the last 5 years before making such ridiculous claims about Hong Kong having a choice.
If it wasn't for Covid, I bet the political situation in Hong Kong would still make headlines.
I suggest that you ask your doctor to not use a mask next time you're undergoing surgery. Ok? Deal?
Otherwise, please stop spreading misinformation and get educated.
It's not just about the 1.x% deaths. Still, 3.5 to 5 million people dead in the USA would dislocate society.
It's about all the others who face long term consequences. Do you think society can handle 25% of all the people, that's over 80 million in the USA alone, with long term chronical illness caused by this virus? Who got disabled, need a lot of treatment, take up tons of hospital beds? And who will care for them? The doctors and nurses who are also dead, ill or have a burnout?
Also, what makes you believe people in China have rights? What makes you think mandatory quarantine is a conviction to jail time? Do you get a criminal record when in quarantine?
@ImportViking
You don't need to lecture me to "look up news on Hong Kong". I am a Hong Kong dual citizen, I am quite in-tuned with HK politics.
Important to highlight - this is not CX decision; it is GovHK decision and as we've seen, these have not been friendly to CX in recent times.
You forgot to mention that, not only the pilots are going into prison camp, their families are all going into prison camp through no fault of their own if the crew has ever gone home since. All in the name of Zero Covid, or rather, the government's "Top priority at all cost".
Cathy Pacific is blaming the hotel, did anyone consider whether the pilots flew on the same Aircraft? Perhaps it was the same Flight deck or radio headsets that both crews were exposed to? Pilots don’t wear masks during flight in case they have to quickly put on Oxygen masks.
They wear masks to prevent getting bacteria from their mouth and nose into the open incision of the patient. Spit droplets are much larger than aerosol particles and are able to be caught by the mask. This is to prevent a bacterial infection from occurring in the incision site. It has nothing to do with not spreading respiratory virus aerosols. The reason surgeons wear masks is completely different than the reason we're all being forced to wear masks.
And @Another Lump is exactly correct. If masks were so very effective, then the pandemic would've ended already or at minimum, places with masking would have drastically lower infection numbers. We all know that this is not the case at all. How anyone can continue to preach masks even as we've seen massive case spikes during mask mandates is beyond me.
It isn't a 1% death rate. Even the CDC recognizes that the true fatality rate when you account for the millions of infections that have gone undetected, especially early on when testing was terrible, is probably no more than 0.5%.
And where on Earth do you see 25% of the population having life-long problems because of Covid? Almost every person who gets it recovers with no problem whatsoever. Just because the media only likes to report on one-off extreme cases doesn't mean that large chunks of the population are going to have long-term damage from Covid. I personally know about 4 dozen people who have had Covid at some point and the longest I've been told that it took to recover completely was about 2.5 weeks. My parents who are in their 70's including my dad who is diabetic were fine within a matter of 5 days.
Sorry but I am sick and tired of people who accusing others of misinformation for thinking that masks are largely ineffective while they themselves spread misinformation trying to make Covid sound much worse than it truly is.
The fact is that the reason such high numbers of Americans died is because they were all fat. Because they were all fat, they were generally unhealthy because of it. We all know obesity causes all sorts of life-threatening conditions including but not limited to diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc. I think the last estimate I heard was that over 80% of people dead with Covid were obese.
Basically we didn't need masks, mandates, lockdowns, vaccines, etc. We needed Americans to quit being lazy fat people to save their lives. Maybe this will be a wake-up call to people to make their health and fitness a priority.
>> The fact is that the reason such high numbers of Americans died is because they were all fat.
Embarrassingly shameless. Launching into victim blaming mode and ignoring the facts (e.g. not as many obese people in Brazil or Russia, still many people died in those countries, right?).
Here are some facts for you:
1. places like Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan (note: I did not mention China) kept the virus at bay until most of their citizens were vaccinated, deaths were minimal
2. whereas in your great "free" nation, more than 750k people are dead from and/or with covid, because *it was not taken seriously*, by those in charge, and by people like you ("It isn't a 1% death rate", so it is OK to have 0.5% out of 300 million = 1.5 million dead, right?)
So stop defending the indefensible.
How’s trump suggesting you triggerred people to take the vaccine. Don’t be upset. He has 5G too. Perhaps you can talk to each other.
Low effectiveness of Chinese vaccines? Why are studies by doctors in south america and Singapore are actually telling different stories? How about Fourth most populous country in the world making great strides due to chinese vaccines despite the western msm claiming that chinese vaccines were ineffective despite <5% inoculation rates?
HK is a chinese cities and should prioritize opening up with HK and Macau.
Absurd zero covid policy? I do think it’s overkill but definitely not absurd at all. Why would it be absurd to save Chinese aging population? China can simply let older people die to reduce burden on younger people so that they can have more young kid which consumes more than old farts. Imagine what you would’ve said if that’s what’s actually happening.
Thank god the protest has died down. Those violent protestors should be tried for crimes against humanity.