Our Desk | Covid-19 is not like Typhoon Hato

Renato Marques

Although epidemics are seen as natural disasters in the eyes of the law, the response from society could not be more conflicting.

The best example that I can remember goes back to when Typhoon Hato hit in August 2017. At the time, the population was united in facing the consequences of the severe storm and joined hands to help those that suffered the most.

For days, even weeks, I saw neighbors helping each other, offering or sharing resources, cleaning, and rebuilding in good spirits that I had never seen before.

However, the response has been the complete opposite during the Covid-19 outbreak. Instead of helping others, people have found refuge in greed, rushing to hoard every possible essential item (as well as some that are not essential).

This time, the neighborly friendliness and helping hands have given way to suspicion and fear.

Unlike Hato, Covid-19 is not a physical catastrophe but a mental one, a challenge to our capacity for reasoning instead of our rationalization skills.

The fact is, in both cases the catastrophes hit the population in very different ways, some in a very light manner and others more severely affected. Only the response is different.

Still, both events highlighted the government’s inability to deal with the unexpected, and the flaws of a system that is absolutely dependent on the mainland.

For sure, the recent effects of Typhoon Hato and Mangkhut were less severe than Covid-19 as the government has learned some lessons – namely regarding the supply of essential goods and keeping people informed about the situation. But even if we do well in the short term, in the long run the consequences might be dramatic as the side-effects accumulate and reaching a tipping point.

With the closure of the region’s only source of income and nine of the 10 pillars of all economic activity of the region – the casinos – the economy has nearly come to a complete halt in all sectors, just like a snowball rolling off a mountain slope knocking over everyone in its path.

Well, almost everyone. As always, the public sector has been shielded, and most civil servants have been able to stay home (as recommended by the government) without losing their jobs and benefits, and without ever having to question their wages (and people still wonder why a job in the government is the ultimate goal in Macau).

Unfortunately, this is the only sector that is risk-free. All the others are battling the severe economic consequences of the outbreak. Across the region, it is difficult to find a single household that does not have a story to tell about layoffs, (forced) unpaid leave, salary cuts or company bankruptcy.

Local companies have switched their rhetoric from “we cannot find enough manpower to develop our business,” to “we do not know what to do to keep our staff employed and paid while there is no business.”

I would say the government has learned how to crash-land the metaphorical plane in the middle of the desert, causing minor injuries during the emergency landing. Now, the issue is how long it will take them to learn what to do with the survivors, some injured, some not; all growing hungrier and thirstier in the days that have passed since the crash.

Maybe now that we don’t have any more new cases of disease, we can also start looking after the healthy.