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 | | Daily reported coronavirus cases in the United States, seven-day average.The New York Times |
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 | | Patients outside a hospital in Hong Kong on Tuesday.Peter Parks/Agence France-Presse, via Getty Images |
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Hong Kong is in the thick of its worst wave yet and is facing a dangerous dilemma: It can't live with the virus, but can't stop it, either. |
Overwhelmed hospitals have left patients on sidewalks. Testing lines wind across soccer fields. Cases are surging exponentially, and researchers have warned that the wave could kill nearly 1,000 people by summer — more than four times the number of Covid fatalities over the past two years. |
Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's chief executive, acknowledged yesterday that the epidemic had "outgrown our capacity." China's leader, Xi Jinping, urged the Hong Kong government in state-run newspapers today to "take all necessary measures" to curb the city's outbreak as soon as possible. |
 | | A family outside a medical center in Hong Kong Wednesday.Peter Parks/Agence France-Presse, via Getty Images |
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The virus has now spread to more than 20 senior homes, highlighting a major weakness in Hong Kong's preparations. Just 56 percent of people 70 and older have had at least one shot of a vaccine, compared with more than 84 percent of people over age 11. |
Until this wave, Hong Kong kept the coronavirus largely in check. For much of 2021, the city recorded no cases. The Omicron variant changed that. |
"In a way we were a victim of our own success, because the fatality rate and the infection rate were pretty good until recently," said Regina Ip, a pro-Beijing lawmaker. "Older people thought they didn't need to be vaccinated because there could be complications. And the government was hesitant. We have avoided vaccine mandates." |
 | | Patients waited to be treated on Tuesday.Miguel Candela/EPA, via Shutterstock |
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Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese city, cannot choose to "live with" the virus because China demands elimination. At the same time, the city, which retains freedoms unheard-of in the mainland, cannot wield Beijing's authoritarian tool kit to stamp out transmission at any cost. |
Certain measures, like a citywide lockdown, could stir anger in a public already deeply distrustful of the government. The government has also hesitated to introduce more invasive contact-tracing apps, in part because of residents' privacy concerns, and because some worry that the authorities will use the latest outbreak as an opportunity to push through more surveillance measures. |
But as Beijing exerts ever-tighter control over Hong Kong — through a national security law and sweeping crackdown on dissent — these considerations may start to matter less. |
Health experts, meanwhile, warn that the political debate has overshadowed the grim medical reality. Between low vaccination rates among older people and the slowness to impose lockdowns, the situation is unlikely to improve any time soon, no matter what path Hong Kong adopts, said Siddharth Sridhar, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong. |
"Hong Kong is moving too late," he said. "We don't have any good options." |
 | | A patient on a hospital bed outside a medical center today.Vincent Yu/Associated Press |
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Many flight attendants love their jobs — at least, they did until the pandemic. The wages are decent for an occupation that doesn't require a college education, and the career provides plenty of perks. An attendant with seniority might work just nine days a month, and off-the-job benefits often include free flights and discounts on hotels and rental cars. |
Before the pandemic, unruly passengers were so rare that the F.A.A. didn't even track them annually. But in 2021 and early 2022, the F.A.A. reported 6,300 unruly-passenger incidents — more than 4,500 of them related to mask rules. |
It's not so different on the ground for other workers whose jobs require that they remind people to comply with mask policies. But airlines are a particular dumping ground for stress and rudeness. Flight attendants are required to uphold a federal mask mandate with little perceived authority — the public thinks "we are nothing more than cocktail waitresses," one said — and without the muscle of law enforcement. |
Individual stories can be harrowing. After a Southwest flight attendant asked a woman to wear her mask over her nose, the woman stood up and repeatedly punched the attendant, drawing blood and chipping three of her teeth. |
Sara Nelson, the head of a union that represents nearly 50,000 flight attendants, testified before Congress in December, saying flight crews were "punching bags" and calling on the government to create a centralized list of banned passengers for all airlines. |
But a group of eight Republican senators is pushing back against an "unruly fliers" list, "arguing that doing so would essentially draw an equivalence between terrorists and opponents of mask mandates," The Washington Post reports. |
Many crew members, including a flight attendant named Veronica, left their jobs during the pandemic. Veronica hopes that if the pandemic recedes and the government lifts the airline mask mandate (which could occur as soon as March 18, but is not certain), the violence and verbal assaults will decline. |
If that happens, she'd love to return to the skies, she said. In the meantime, she has taken her 3-year-old daughter out of day care and is a full-time mother. For now, "instead of dealing with 72 toddlers," she said, "I'm taking care of one." |
More in the magazine's Future of Work issue: |
Are you ready to return to the office? |
As the Omicron wave fades and more businesses consider recalling workers to their cubicles, we want to know how you feel about it. |
The Times is reporting an article about how people felt about the office before the pandemic, and what emotions they're experiencing as they prepare to go back. We will also be publishing your responses in this newsletter. If you'd like to participate, you can fill out this form. |
What else we're following |
I'm sorry, but this mask debate is enraging and, quite frankly, at this stage of the pandemic, ridiculous. The governor of New York lifted mandates for masks, and yet everywhere you go you still have to wear a mask. There is no uniformity on the law or how to behave. Most disturbingly, with all of the knowledge we have about transmission in schools, the children are still wearing masks. Yet at the Super Bowl and restaurants and all sorts of different locations, you can just do whatever you want mask free. This is unacceptable. When is an adult going to take the reins and stop making people feel like we're living in a panic stage of the pandemic? Let our children live. — Joey Netter, New York City |
How are you dealing with the pandemic? Let us know, and we may feature your response in an upcoming newsletter. |
Correction: In yesterday's newsletter, the caption of a photo of a traveling nurse included the incorrect date. The photo was taken in 2021, not this year. |
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