Many deserve our praise for sacrifice in fight against COVID-19

Praise has been heaped on the outstanding heroes during the fight against the COVID-19: the medical professionals who answered the call of duty by volunteering to relocate from all over China to Wuhan, Hubei Province, once the epicenter.

That volunteering entailed almost unbearable personal discomfort.

Medics had to be clad for six or more hours in ungainly, hermetically sealed surgical garments, with its own, hardly bearable hot and sweaty biosphere, without being able to drink or take food and, most inconveniently for a healthy adult: strictly no toilet access.

Sadly, some of these heroes paid with their lives, leaving behind their mourning wives, children and parents.

Their ultimate sacrifices, though, have not been in vain.

These heroes have materially helped prevent one of the most calamitous pandemics in China and, indeed, the rest of the world, by providing the rest of the world plenty of warning of the ferocity of the virus and giving them time to take preventive measures to limit a worldwide spread.

Warnings that, unfortunately, went unheeded in some countries.

Praise should also go to the tens of thousands of workers and engineers who were recalled from their traditional annual festival and willingly designed and built, on almost virgin farmland, a highly specialized and fully equipped 1,000- and 1,500-bed isolation hospitals from the scratch, in less than three weeks, instead of the usual one year or more.

And all that with state-of-the-art, under-pressure isolation rooms to prevent pathogens from invading any other parts of the building.

Then there were and are the thousands of unsung heroes operating their sewing machines in sprawling factories all over China in 24/7 shifts to manufacture surgical anti-viral suits, masks and accessories, for the whole world.

And what about the unsung heroes who ensured that provisions and daily necessities from shops and supermarkets would be delivered — the courier heroes who continue to serve, among many others, the infirm and the bedridden, on their overloaded electric bicycles.

Of course, we should not forget the heroes in government offices and in the police force who meticulously devised the highly effective virus containment measures and then had them executed.

And so the list goes on.

To all of them, our heartfelt thanks.

(The author is an emeritus professor at several universities in Shanghai and is currently active as a business consultant. The views expressed are his own.)