Facts and Analysis: Canvassing COVID-19 Responses

This project is a product of Covid-19 lockdown. Tucked away in our respective neighborhoods, in different regions of the world, we shared our labor in making sense of the displacements caused by the new virus.

By now there is no doubt that the virus that is known as SARS-COV-2, and the global disease it caused, Covid-19 (literally meaning the Disease (D) of Corona- (CO) virus (VI) of 2019), has been a disruptor of our lives. Its impact has been unprecedented in modern human history, in terms of scale, depth or resilience, whether compared to other epidemics plaguing the world in recent decades, often much more “deadly”, or to the advance of technologies which scientists have described as “revolutionary”. From politics to economics, spanning families or across religions, Covid-19 has unsettled the accustomed norms. The global village is being atomized with “new normal” in routines. Cultures clash; politics is ever more polarized; regional tensions are on the rise. Global trade patterns and supply chains are increasingly being questioned and redrawn.

Old fault lines have resurfaced and deepened. Whilst the virus knows no boundaries, social equities remain a thorny issue. As the world focuses its effort in breaking new scientific grounds to find a cure, distribution may turn out to be our biggest challenge.

This struggle will continue for quite a while, we suspect. Not because a successful vaccine is still in its making – though it is certainly. But because the old problems won't go away with a vaccine, good and curing as it is. Human societies will need to mull over our clashes over beliefs, habits and ideas of knowledge – those of yours and mine and theirs – and hopefully out of some bubbles of reflections and struggles we emerge wiser and more resilient of the hard fact of co-existence. Amongst people of different colours, genders, religions and politics, and between humans and other lives, and non-lives, on earth.
Perhaps we should learn how to live with less hassles. We need to learn how to communicate better. As things become increasingly complex, perhaps it is time to go simple.

We seek simply, here, to lay out what we notice as the major events on Covid-19. Period. Some assessments are inevitable in the reports, and even in the selection of the “facts”. There is nothing called “value free”; we are humans with minds. We have sought, nonetheless, grounded analysis and accounts to guide our making sense of the complexities. This is how, we hope, this work will be used and judged.

Conceived during my lockdown in London in March 2020, this project quickly took shape with the formation of a collaborative team with colleagues and friends from different regions of the world. We are often humbled by the weight of the developments, as we reflected upon the fruits of our labor. Sharing and communications have re-energized us and kept us on track, however, and here the product is.

We have leveraged on the excellent work of a huge number of people, including the many sources we cited. Peers and students with the Research Centre for Sustainable Hong Kong and Department of Public Policy have provided essential assistance and suggestions. Professor Martin Painter, professor emeritus at City University of Hong Kong and long-time friend and colleague, read the drafts of a few reports, at the busy time of welcoming a new member to his family. The editors at City University of Hong Kong Press embraced the project idea and delivered efficiently the final product. Our sincere thanks to their efforts. The faults (and certainly there are) that remain are ours.

Linda Chelan Li
January 2021, Hong Kong