@ohyoubadbadkitten,
First and foremost, memories of SARS in 2003. This was very badly handled by the authorities, and initially covered up, resulting in hundreds of deaths. Plus it’s not just about the death rate, many who survived have lifelong respiratory issues, reduced life expectancy, etc. This is still very raw. Hong Kong was ground zero of that epidemic, and the economy suffered very badly.
Second of all, proximity to China. Wuhan is a long way away, but as the virus crossed through all provinces of China, it was inevitable that it would find its way here pretty quickly. The border between HK and China has many entry points, and typically 100,000 crossings per day by train, tube (MTR - our tube network goes all the way to the Chinese border in Shenzhen), ships/ferries and roads. And Hong Kong airport is a huge transfer point in Asia. 50% of all passengers at HKG are on a connecting flight - typically on a route to/from China and the rest of the world. So we have a huge number of Chinese visitors coming to Hong Kong every day.
The crisis is exacerbated by the fact that Hong Kong is not a democracy. We’ve had a very difficult year in 2019 with protests, which were handled appallingly by the government (appointed by Beijing). In recent local elections, 80% of voters supported pro-democracy parties, i.e. against the establishment/Beijing. This means that the current government enjoys no support whatsoever from the bulk of the population. People don’t trust them to do the right thing for a Hong Kong, the general sentiment is that they are subservient to China first. There is no confidence in public officers.
The medical workers‘ strike is in response to Hong Kong’s refusal to shut the border with China. Medical workers say they are overwhelmed and that the vast majority of patients under observation for corona are from China, not Hong Kong (we have different passports and id from China). Hospitals are at capacity already. They’ve been asking the government to shut the border to put the safety of Hong Kongers first. But the chief executive says this would be discriminatory against China. They’ve introduced measures to reduce the number of visitors, which has now gone done by about 30%, but many people are saying this is not enough.
The local press is of very low quality (I can’t vouch for Canto newspapers, just talking about the English media), and social media fills the gaps. This leads to lots of rumours being spread, leading to panic.
People wear face masks pretty routinely in Hong Kong, so as soon as the bad news started about corona, everyone wanted to get face masks, so of course shops ran out. This was made worse by Chinese New Year, when things are typically running more slowly. After masks ran out, it was antibacterial gel, then dettol wipes. Soon people started worrying about their food supplies - Hong Kong imports virtually all its food, mostly from China.
After you’ve seen empty supermarket shelves for a few days, and people queuing for hours (it’s usually like going to Sainsbury’s - I’m not talking about wet markets here) to get food, you think “next time I can get some food, I’ll buy as much as I can”. That’s a rational reaction to other people stockpiling, and of course leads to more shortages, and more panic.
I will stop here - sorry it’s a bit of a novel! 😳