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Mystery bug sets tongues wagging
By Joe Havely
HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- If Wall Street sneezes, it is often said, the rest of the world catches a cold. In Hong Kong these days, a sneeze or a cough will likely send the world around you running off in blind panic. More than a month into the outbreak of a mysterious and deadly pneumonia virus, Hong Kong is a city gripped by fear -- and rumor. Alarm over the outbreak has sent Hong Kong's gossips and rumormongers into paroxysms of activity. "Have you heard the latest? They're shutting the airport you know -- no one allowed in or out." This one at least is a false rumor. Hong Kong Director of Health, Dr Margaret Chan, said Tuesday: "There is no need for us to declare Hong Kong an infected area. Our airport and all external transport with other parts of the world will continue as usual." Nevertheless, a place that markets itself "the City of Life" and whose lifeblood is travel, trade and international business is acquiring a reputation as a place of disease. A friend who visited Singapore last week on business was "politely requested" not to enter his company's offices there. The fact that he was from Hong Kong, he was told, was scaring employees. Little more than a week ago, going about your daily business sporting a surgical facemask like George Clooney from "ER" was likely to see you labeled a mild eccentric. No more. After days of skepticism and mild guffawing I finally threw in my towel at the weekend and joined the mask-wearing masses. As the number of infections soars and the degrees of separation narrow between you and someone who's "got the bug," everyone has their breaking point. Now, in bars and offices across the city, masks are the number one topic of conversation. "Are you wearing one? Which is the best one? Where can you get one? I hear there's somewhere in Wan Chai that has just got new stocks in." For Hong Kong's fashion watchers, masks are the new black. Enter Hong Kong's legendary entrepreneurial spirit. In a city as label-conscious as this, it is no surprise that masks in the colors of Louis Vuitton and Burberry have made an appearance.
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