Editorial
There was finally a glimmer of light at the end of the pitch-black COVID-19 tunnel on Saturday when Macau’s first batch of novel coronavirus jabs arrived after a 30-hour truck drive from Beijing.
The vaccines arrived in good time – less than a week before the Chinese New Year so that our health workers can get the shots before the prolonged Spring Festival holidays which potentially are a high-risk COVID-19 period.
Long public holidays such as Christmas in Europe and Thanksgiving in the United States have proved to be novel coronavirus super-spreader events.
I haven’t travelled outside Macau since late December 2019, and I will stay put during this Chinese New Year – as I did during last year’s as well. It’s safer for me and safer for all those around me.
I hope that only those with pressing family or other matters will travel outside Macau during the Spring Festival. We all should heed the government’s advice to refrain from travelling unless it can’t be avoided for very important reasons such as business commitments, emergency medical treatment and enrolment commitments, or visiting next-of-kin or dear friends in a heart-wrenching predicament.
While I am of the view that residents should not be barred from returning to Macau during the COVID-19 crisis, I would expect them only to travel when absolutely necessary. I have no patience with those who get stuck during a leisure trip overseas in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic and then start whining and even accuse the government of not helping them return to Macau. Do they expect the government to airlift them back to Macau? They should stay where they are right now and kill time by pondering about the necessary predominance of the collectivity over the individual at a time when humanity is caught in the clutches of a dreadful pandemic and medical workers are fighting an uphill battle worldwide to snatch millions of patients from the jaws of death.
Both the local government and population have shown their mettle during the ongoing fight against the viral menace on various fronts – such as the steady provision and ubiquitous wearing of facemasks as well as strict prevention and control measures. Both the Hong Kong government and Hong Kong people can learn a lot from their counterparts in Macau – which in the not-so-distant past they liked to dismiss as their “poor cousins in the sleepy enclave.”
Well, the first vaccines have arrived and Macau is now entering a new and, let’s hope, crucial phase in bringing the virus to its knees. The good news is that the jabs will be free of charge for residents, non-resident workers and non-local students, apart from the fact that we will be able to choose among three different vaccines. Besides, the vaccination campaign will be carried out on a voluntary basis.
While I am ready for the jabs, I have sympathy for those who still hesitate about being inoculated. Hopefully, the Health Bureau’s successful vaccination drive will manage to bring them around in the end.
Of course, it still remains to be seen how effective the vaccines will be, and for how long they will be able to protect us. The effectiveness of herd immunity also remains a highly controversial topic among scientists. Well, the scientific process is knowledge in transit, and next year we can expect to know much more about COVID-19 than now, while some of the current hypotheses about the virus will meanwhile have been falsified by the scientific community.
Why I do understand that some people need time to accept the COVID-19 jabs, I can’t fathom why some people in Hong Kong and elsewhere reject compulsory testing for the virus. Is it a kind of wayward individualism or just sheer mulishness vis-à-vis anything that comes from the authorities? Macau people aren’t like that, thank goodness.
Thanks!
Incidentally, I would like to use this opportunity to thank all nurses, doctors and other staff members of the emergency department (ED) of the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre for taking such good care of me late last month when I came down with a nasty bout of gastroenteritis. As I spent some six hours there for a string of tests I could observe – with a seasoned journalist’s eye – how busy, friendly and, last but not least, competent the ED team is. For the first time in my life I ended up on a drip and for the first time in Macau I took an ambulance ride (the ambulance team from the Fire Services Bureau also deserves my praise). The last time I ended up in an ambulance was some six decades ago when I broke my left leg in an equestrian accident.
Thanks to the emergency department’s professional assistance, I was able to make a speedy recovery. Macau can be proud of its public hospital and the Health Bureau. Keep up the good work!
– Harald Brüning
