Ideum The last time I exited an all-encompassing public health crisis, day to day life changed subtly but permanently. It was 2003 and, living in Hong Kong, we had just faced a SARS epidemic that left a little under 300 people in the city dead. This crisis had a profound effect on not just the psyche of the city’s inhabitants, but the physical city itself. A housing complex had its drainage system overhauled when its design was blamed for a mass outbreak. Temperature checks through thermal imaging at the airport became standard. And the little things: plastic sheeting over elevator buttons, ever-present hand sanitizer in office lobbies, the normalization of wearing surgical masks in public when feeling a little sniffly. These changes aimed at mediating our physical contact with each other, whether directly or through shared space. Over the last 17 years, none of those things have gone away in Hong Kong.