a mask. I was a bit disconcerted last January when so many in the gym I go to in New York were not wearing masks while Omicron was at its peak, but I suppose YOLO was how they felt. Let’s see what I do later. I did feel concerned about not wearing a mask, but I read an article that at least in New York, to get a permit to operate a gym there are long standing ventilation standards that must be met. Besides, as the article noted, if they did not meet that heightened ventilation, the gym would stink.

China-like restrictions

Then there is China plus Hong Kong and Macau. Quietly, Taiwan and Japan have China-like restrictions on allowing non-citizens and residents in, but apart from that seem to have opened up internally. China has yet to and frankly, I do understand why it is rational for them to keep being strict. The dilemma is for Hong Kong and Macau to rely on trade, visitors and international commerce to remain viable. I think the outgoing chief executive was not the best in dealing with this, but her ability to be flexible seems to have been curtailed. When others opened up and they stayed firmly closed was troublesome enough.

The high handed quarantine measures imposed domestically during Omicron where a 10-month-old baby was separated from her mother during quarantine plus the enforced quarantine in spartan government facilities, seems to have been the final act that moved from grumbling to this-is-unacceptable for many who could do something about it. I know several bankers who just left not knowing exactly when they would return. A few have accepted jobs elsewhere and won’t return. I also know of two local Hong Kong families who also left for Singapore. One moved there, and the other does not know when they will return. I suppose there are limits to being an outlier on the restrictive side. Some of the measures in my view are misguided. Like banning an airline from flying to Hong Kong with now 5 or 5 percent of its passengers testing positive on arrival or during quarantine. That struck me as frankly misguided and counterproductive. Do the airlines administer the tests? Don’t they just check and enter the results? Why blame them? Seems like scapegoating to me and just a bureaucratic way of saying I am doing something.

Well, I hope the two-and-half-year epidemic while not out is now considered endemic and manageable.