Opinion | Coronavirus outbreak: Hong Kong is facing a shortage of masks, toilet paper and leadership

This chicken-or-egg question is important as a novel strain of pandemonium erupts in Hong Kong. This is not the old strain, when our streets were turned into battlefields of lawless fury. This is the mutated version: a contagion of fear has gripped our city, and the uninfected masses put themselves at risk of contracting the new coronavirus by flocking to buy not just masks and rice, but also toilet paper.

This is an outrageous spectacle – almost as outrageous as the chief executive restricting the use of masks among government officials in non-frontline positions, so as to conserve the supply of masks for public health workers. Then there is the mystery of the missing masks: Lam earmarked masks produced by inmates in Lo Wu Correctional Institution for medical staff, and yet the Hospital Authority denied receiving those masks.