By Koo Lap

A 17-year-old female student was tested positive for the Covid Alpha variant in Tin Shui Wai; genetic sequencing showed that this Covid variant detected was different from the neighboring regions and the WHO database of hundreds of thousands of samples around the world. The 140 close contacts of hers were all tested negative. The source of the virus has become a mystery. Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, the virus detective, personally visited the home of the female student, the industrial building where she had tutoring sessions, and the pet store she visited, and pointed out three possible means of transmission: human-to-human, animal-to-human, and object-to-human. Among them, the human-to-human transmission was the likeliest. Yet despite on-site investigations, and it has been two weeks since the confirmed case, the source still has not been determined. Why such determination?

Professor Yuen pointed out that as much as 70% of patients are asymptomatic. If the source of the virus is not determined, blocked, and cut off, it will be no different from opening the floodgate for the virus to spread everywhere in the community, which could easily lead to an outbreak the scale of those in Singapore or India. The level of risk is in fact no different from a ticking bomb. Professor Yuen’s persistence in getting to the root of the problem is the exact embodiment of a true scientific spirit.

Witnessing the painstaking efforts of Professor Yuen, it will not be difficult for us to understand why even after the inhabitant of the White House has changed, Biden is continuing down the path set out by Trump, to order the intelligence units to find the source of Covid within a set timeframe. Thanks to the widespread vaccination of the new nucleic acid vaccines, the epidemic in the U.S. is undoubtedly under control. Yet just as the female student with her variant in Tin Shui Wai, there is no determination of the origin of the pandemic; whether the virus was in fact transmitted from bat species to humans, as stated by Professor Yuen in January 2020, or as suspected by some American scientists, that it was a lab-leak accident from the Wuhan Institute of Virology that brought a disaster to the world, a consensus is yet to be made.

Recently, the lab-leak theory has been rather popular. In particular, a paper published in 2017 by Shi Zhengli, an expert virologist in the Wuhan laboratory claimed that the SARS virus gene was successfully recombined the SARS gene, triggered the worry that the laboratory carrying out genetic modification to strengthen the virus’ gain of function did not meet the leak-proof specifications and led to the disaster. Clarifying to the New York Times, Shi Zhengli said that her research aimed to strengthen the human body’s immunity against viruses and there was nothing more to that. To not let the Wuhan lab off the hook is not about targeting China. All it is about is tracking the origin of the virus in order to determine precautionary measures against the virus just like Covid, which could take away millions of lives in such a short time. Just like Professor Yuen said, letting it go would only lead to endless troubles.

The proposed amendment to the fugitive ordinance has landed Hong Kong in an irreversible position. Former Chief Justice Andrew Li Kwok-nang embodied the same scientific spirit of getting to the root cause of the issue, and proposed an independent investigation committee led by a judge to get to the truth to promote social reconciliation. Justice Li’s practical solution to solve the problem and save life received almost unanimous support from all walks of society. Yet since day one, Carrie Lam had refused to take the first essential step of rebuilding trust in society.

Without trust, it is no surprise that Carrie Lam’s polls went down the drain, and so did anti-epidemic efforts. Right from the get-go, the people were suspicious and refused to participate in virus testing and install the mobile app LeaveHomeSafe. Even when the nucleic acid vaccines were proven to be highly effective, people were reluctant to get the jab. The mutual distrust then led to mainland-style mass vaccination campaigns that made things even worse, and the expiration of the precious vaccines. The bankruptcy of trust is not a trivial matter.

Even if there is no shortage of the “four confidence” of path, theory, political system, and culture, Xi Jinping, too, of course realized that without trust, one has no foothold on the international stage. Hence at the end of last month, he issued new instructions to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CCP: shed the wolf warrior stance, and adopt a “modest and humble” new tone for publicity, and strive to create a “reliable, admirable, and respectable” new image. Among all three, starting with “reliable” is especially worth pondering.

Unfortunately, even with the words still ringing in our ears, Taishan nuclear power plant, situated only a hundred miles from Hong Kong, is under the scrutiny of concealing radiation leakage. Based on past experience, creating a whole new “reliable, admirable, and respectable” image in the current digital age looks to be an impossible task for the CCP. If one truly wants to turn over a new leaf, where else to begin than to open up the Wuhan labs, and disclose the source of Covid? If one truly is “modest and humble”, what else than to return to the Sino-British Joint Declaration and start with honestly fulfilling the solemn promise of “one country, two systems”? When neither is the case, how is one to speak of the new “reliable, admirable, and respectable” image?

This article is translated from Chinese by Apple Daily.

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