Drum deserters out of healthcare service: China Daily editorial

A widely-criticized strike staged by the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance, which is being orchestrated by political zealots who have actively participated in the monthslong anti-government campaign in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, entered its fourth day on Thursday amid growing public outrage.

An online petition launched on Tuesday by the Hong Kong Medical Workers Alliance and a healthcare profession concern group formed by local residents who love their community collected more than 218,000 valid signatures as of 2 pm on Thursday.

The civic campaign denounces the despicable behavior of those who are brazenly shirking their duties under the pretense of an "industrial action" at such a critical moment. It rightly calls for the striking hospital employees to be dismissed on the grounds they are unfit for their jobs, as they have thrown to the wind the oath they all took upon joining the profession that they would always prioritize patients' interests over their own.

As a result of their strike action, emergency services, neonatal intensive care units, cancer and radiology services and isolation wards in many public hospitals had been severely affected.

In putting the most vulnerable patients, such as newborns and cancer patients, at risk at a critical time when the nation as a whole is fighting the novel coronavirus outbreak, those politicizing their duty of care in this way are demonstrating the darkest side of humanity, aside from the total collapse of their morality and professionalism.

The Hospital Authority Employees Alliance claims that the SAR is dangerously close to "a massive community outbreak comparable to SARS", but that is simply scaremongering.

Although the Hong Kong health authority has announced the first death from the virus on Tuesday, there are only 21 confirmed infections and the SAR government is imposing compulsory quarantine on all visitors from the mainland.

The Hospital Authority Employees Alliance, which organized the strike, was formed during the recent riots by some political zealots who actively participated in the unrest that troubled Hong Kong throughout the second half of last year and all have affiliations with the opposition political parties.

They are trying to drive a wedge between Hong Kong people and mainland residents and to discredit the SAR government in an attempt to amass political capital ahead of the September Legislative Council election at the expense of patients' well-being.

In doing so, they are trying to advance their political objectives by taking public health hostage.

Disgraceful and despicable, the strike has revealed the true colors of the political zealots who are willing to put other people's lives at risk for their specious cause.