From SARS to COVID-19: A personal journey

Recently I walked to Beijing’s Tuanjiehu Park. At the gate, temperature checks. Inside the park many were enjoying warm sunshine and spring blossom continued with their masks on and distancing. Back at Sanlitun, more checks at vibrant Taikooli lifestyle area. At a cafe bar where I am well known, I was checked along with a welcoming smile! From its terrace I watched the youth walking on the street below while thinking how the virus has been tackled. It has been by national resilience and adhering to guidelines. Acceptance of such restrictions I am sure has saved vast numbers of lives nationwide.

Impressive also has been was the way medical teams from across China went to Wuhan to assist the local health system being overwhelmed. They rightly came back to their home towns as local heroes.

Although much experience was gained during the SARS outbreak, the application of high-tech data handling has helped in the containment, rapidly bringing a potentially frightening situation under control. For a country of around 1.4 billion people, this has been vital, the opposite being unthinkable.