July 2003

Dear Friends,

On June 24, the front page of the South China Morning Post featured eight photos of Hong Kong’s newest heroes. They were the eight medical personnel who lost their lives treating patients during the SARS outbreak. Under their photos were these sobering words and statistics:

These people died fighting a disease that struck down 378 of their colleagues. In total, 1,755 Hong Kong residents were infected, 321 at Amoy Gardens alone, and 296 died. 1,262 people were put in isolation, 13,300 jobs were lost and 4,000 businesses folded. A WHO [World Health Organization] travel advisory was in place for 52 days, 13,783 flights were cancelled, 3,600,000 fewer travellers crossed at Lowu (China) and 1,000,000 foreign tourists stayed away. Today, 104 days after the outbreak began, we are free of SARS.

This somber headline was a striking but somehow appropriate contrast to the photos of government and tourism officials celebrating. Yes, we do need to rebuild our battered image to get Hong Kong’s economy going again. But we must never forget the lessons of this crisis, and how it has changed Hong Kong forever.

One of the greatest lessons to come out of this experience is a profound new respect for those who serve us in the medical field. Some of them had expressed fear as well, but they continued to do their jobs in a highly professional, compassionate manner. One of the doctors, a Christian, was particularly remembered because she had volunteered to work with SARS patients when there was a shortage of medical staff. Her death was a terrible shock to her family and colleagues. As a tribute, her church published a book and a documentary about her life and witness. This message of selfless sacrifice for others has been well-received in the community, particularly among young people.

Another lesson is that we need to clean up Hong Kong! We have some very dirty areas (like back alleys and garbage dumps) and very unhealthy habits (like spitting in public) that are breeding-grounds for disease. We cannot remain complacent about our hygiene and our environment. SARS could possibly return as a seasonal virus if we do not put the right measures in place right now.

A third lesson is the acknowledgment of just how interconnected we are with mainland China. The “one country, two systems” principle has been debated in many arenas, but in this aspect, we definitely need as much cross-border communication and cooperation as possible. We were aware that some sort of terrible pneumonia-like disease was hitting southern China as early as November 2002. Yet Hong Kong didn’t get accurate information about its spread until it arrived in the form of an infected China doctor who stayed in Room 911 in a hotel in Hong Kong. Yes, our own version of Ground Zero. In hindsight, we realize the spread of SARS could have been dramatically limited if we had taken the proper action at that critical moment.

Even as the masks are being taken off, the aftermath of SARS will be with us for a long while. It is more than a time of celebration—it is a time of penitence. In the words of a prayer by Emily Dickinson, “Yea though we walk through the valleys…teach us what to truly fear and what to truly hope.”

Yours,

Judy Chan

The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 172.