Most people in Hong Kong wear facial masks to go to Causeway Bay for shopping on Saturday. Photo: CNS Photo

When the whole Chinese mainland is jointly fighting the novel coronavirus, thousands of Hong Kong medical workers have staged a five-day strike, regardless of the many hospitalized patients. This has been the first strike by medical staff in Hong Kong's history, and it will definitely be a shameful one. They are ignominious slackers while the virus goes rampant.

The strike was launched by the newly formed union called the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance (HAEA). The core demand of the medical workers was that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government close the city's border with the mainland and ban mainland people from entering Hong Kong to avoid the spread of the coronavirus.

In the face of such demands, the Hong Kong SAR government responded that 90 percent of people traveling between the mainland and Hong Kong are Hongkongers and called it a "discriminatory approach" which is not in line with WHO warnings.

In other words, the demand of the strikers is neither necessary nor justified. However, the strikers turned a deaf ear. 

This is a politically driven strike. The HAEA was formed at the beginning of this year with strong political inclinations. Its introduction reads, the HAEA is dedicated to political issues, the hospital authority's internal issues and issues in the medical system. This bluntly admits that it was born for politics.

Healing wounds and saving lives are the duty of medical workers. Because of this, it is a respectable occupation. Regardless of country or region, medical professionals should keep a distance from politics and abide by their professional codes. Yet those Hong Kong medical workers who went on strike have crossed the bottom line. Due to their absence from duty, some of Hong Kong's emergency wards were forced to shut down while most scheduled surgeries had to be postponed. Even Cesarean sections and cancer surgeries were affected. 

It needs to be pointed out that there are still many medical staff in Hong Kong who are not bewitched by ulterior motives and insist on working on the frontline of epidemic prevention and control. Those selfish strikers should apologize to their fellow colleagues who are committed to their jobs and responsibilities. 

The spirit of professionalism has always been the spiritual cornerstone of Hong Kong society, especially the city's healthcare industry. Now that these medical staff are abandoning themselves to vice, it is to a large extent a result of the unhealthy social mentality after the radical protests in Hong Kong. In other words, the strike of the medical workers was a part of the turbulence triggered by an extradition amendment bill, because their political maneuvers are basically the same.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus is threatening the health and lives of billions of people, which is a common challenge. Yet in Hong Kong, some people and forces are trying to amplify the public's concerns about the virus in an attempt to aggravate contradictions and drive a wedge between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. The actual detriment of their sinister intentions to Hong Kong is no less than the virus.

There is no doubt that China will eventually defeat the virus. Bravery, kindness, and nobility, or cowardice, malice and meanness, revealed in the battle against the epidemic, will be fairly judged by history.