Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have made its way back to Hong Kong. By Saturday, Hong Kong reported a total of 1,885 cases, exceeding the number of infected cases during the SARS epidemic 17 years ago, and over 600 more than the number at the end of June.

The fact that the confirmed cases in Hong Kong have soared over about half a month makes people wonder how Hong Kong, once a straight-A student in combating the coronavirus, suddenly seems defenseless against COVID-19.

To find the answer, it is necessary to learn about what exactly happened in Hong Kong during that period.

On July 1, "mutual destruction" mobsters instigated demonstrations and took part in mass gatherings regardless of bans. Later, on July 11 and 12, they hosted the 2020 Hong Kong illegal primaries and incited people to vote at over 250 polling booths.

Evidence suggests the recent outbreak in Hong Kong is closely connected with the mass demonstrations and illegal primaries held by the mobsters advocating mutual destruction.

It was about one week after the illegal demonstrations on July 1 that the epidemic started to break out. Several days after the so-called primaries, Hong Kong set a record in its newly confirmed cases within one day.

Many medical experts in Hong Kong pointed out that the outbreak coincided with the two activities held by the mobsters. Many recent cases were discovered close to the polling booths set up by the rioters.

For the sake of politics, "mutual destruction" advocates have treated life with indifference and put Hong Kong at risk.

They have revealed their true colors by choosing voting over life, disregarding the novel coronavirus and spreading “political viruses”.

Even worse, the government of Hong Kong recently introduced testing organizations from the Chinese mainland to conduct testing on high-risk groups in Hong Kong for free, which was misrepresented by the rioters as "collecting the DNA of Hong Kong residents".

It is clear that to defeat the novel coronavirus, Hong Kong needs to first get rid of such “political viruses”.

Defeating the epidemic requires respecting science, rather than politicizing everything, in the way that advocates for "mutual destruction” do.

Beijing, which was also hit again by COVID-19, implemented large-scale investigations promptly, and conducted nucleic acid tests among all key groups of people, containing the pandemic in a short period.

Its experience is believed to infuse confidence into Hong Kong and can be useful for Hong Kong to curb the pandemic.

Besides expanding testing, maintaining a safe social distance is still the key to epidemic prevention. Many medical workers in Hong Kong have called on all large-scale public gatherings to be cancelled during the epidemic.

Such a voice based on science is helpful for Hong Kong's fight against the epidemic. The attempt of the rioters to spoil anti-epidemic efforts in Hong Kong by spreading “political viruses” should stop immediately.