Hong Kong faces hard questions over pain of pandemic restrictions
- Students, athletes, businesses and Hong Kong itself are experiencing stunted growth while the rest of the world leaves us behind
- The city and its leaders must look beyond short-term issues and ask hard questions about the end game and how much more Hongkongers can take
As we enter the second quarter of 2022, which coincides with the second quarter of Hong Kong’s fifth wave, the administration and Hong Kong’s population would do well to take advantage of this moment to take stock of the enormity of the price we have paid – and continue to pay with each passing day – to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
The most fortunate children have had the opportunity to partake in at most six months of face-to-face, full-day education on school premises. The least fortunate have not had a single day experiencing that format for some 24 months. Over the course of the pandemic, the consensus of educators and researchers makes clear that much has been lost. We have paid an incalculable cost that weighs on the development of students’ social skills, mental aptitude and resilience.
The list is long and distinguished only by the extent to which industries have been laid to waste. The road to restoring robust growth promises to be long and arduous.
Our integration with the mainland, Macau and the Greater Bay Area has been stunted. With the swift closing of borders since the outbreak of the pandemic, Hong Kong’s lack of involvement with the rest of the region has been glaring.
With all these areas of stunted growth so visible in the daily lives of many, questions arise over costs and benefits. At what cost is Hong Kong doing what it is to fight Covid-19? What price has Hong Kong already paid and for what gain? How much higher a price is it willing to pay? When all is said and done, will it have been worth it?
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When will we as a city – and, more broadly, as a country – understand what the end game will look like and where it will take us? How much more of this stunted growth can we be expected to endure before our collective economic, social and mental backs break?
Failure to do so will only perpetuate the stunted growth to which we have sadly become so accustomed – our “new normal”. It is anything but.
Naubahar Sharif is professor of public policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)