Here's some piping hot tea that will scorch tankies: Hong Kong was saved by the protests. While HK has the memory of SARS, and a culture of mask use, the universal adoption of them was because the entire city had been brutalised by the govt. for months and had zero trust in them. https://twitter.com/scmpnews/status/1247023431570374658

Nobody here* would have objected to wearing masks if directed to do so, or if we had Taiwan-style elected leaders that actually, you know, lead, directing the response. But we have a puppet govt. that did nothing so it was a community response leading the way.

*well, expats lol

But seeing the entire city mask up almost overnight (including sourcing the supplies to do so) was because we KNEW that this govt. had no interest in our wellbeing and wouldn't save us. So we did it ourselves. 16,000 cans of tear gas and 10,000 rubber bullets will do that to you.

We're not out of the woods yet, and if anything we're at more danger now than ever before as China is raising its lockdown and we'll be facing an influx of border traffic.

But only 4 deaths. We've been masked up and taking it seriously since the end of January. Only 4 deaths.

I'm borrowing this gorgeous photo by Sweary Dave. I live here, over to the left of the pic. Most densely populated part of the planet. We made it through 65+ days with only 4 deaths thanks to the community response.

Moral: Wear masks, don't wait for your govt. to save you.

P.S. - a reminder that the Hong Kong govt. BANNED face masks back in October, so the entire community masking up was in defiance of an oppressive emergency law because protecting the people around us was more important than bending the knee to authority.

This is Hong Kong.