COVID: a personal note
Everyone has their pandemic stories. DigFin’s Jame DiBiasio has one that you may find relevant. In June, the Hong Kong government lowered its quarantine requirement for travelers from the United States to seven days. Jame booked a trip to see his parents.
He arrived in New York in August and woke the next morning to the news that Hong Kong had changed its quarantine rules from seven to 21 days. There were no quarantine hotels available for the hundreds of travelers with suddenly elongated stays. Jame found himself looking at a five or six week stay in the U.S. before he could return.
He couldn’t cover Asia from the East Coast of the U.S. for such a long time. More importantly, most Americans had adopted an “I’m done with COVID” attitude that meant the virus was spreading faster than ever.
Jame hugged his parents and fled for Portugal for three weeks, long enough to qualify for a shorter quarantine upon his return to Hong Kong. By early September, Portugal had vaccinated 80 percent of its people. The Portuguese also wore masks. And they had free, fast access throughout hte city to rapid tests.
These three factors meant Lisbon was open, and much lower risk than the U.S. For example, concert halls were packed, but required proof of double-vaccination and a 48-hour antibody test. Restaurants required proof of two jabs to eat inside.
Then it was back to Hong Kong and a militarized quarantine regime, along with the ever-present threat of being randomly scooped up and sent to a quarantine camp. Tests require advance booking and are only available in a few places. Masks are mandatory, but vaccinations are not: the unvaxxed can enjoy entry to restaurants, banquet halls, and anything else. Therefore the vaccination rate in Hong Kong is only 61 percent – and, shockingly, below 15 percent for people over the age of 80.
Portugal shows that we can live with COVID if we are all:
- Really really vaccinated
- Wearing masks when in public
- Able to get tested on demand for free
Vaccines alone don’t stop COVID but they massively reduce hospitalizations and deaths. The point to COVID safety measures should be on keeping the healthcare system from crashing. The one heavy-handed measure that we need from government is a vaccine mandate or very strong incentives to get the hesitant to comply.
Of course, many people don’t have access to vaccines. In those countries or regions, COVID remains a mortal threat, and DigFin hopes you stay out of harm’s way.
At some point, hopefully in 2022, COVID will be mostly behind us – but the changes it has wrought represent opportunities that the fintech world will continue to exploit for years.
Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2022!
