What my coronavirus tour taught me: Hong Kong is stoic, Italy laughs, Abu Dhabi swabs and Malaysia lags

As fate would have it, in the past month I have travelled to Italy as the coronavirus was accelerating from nuisance to epidemic; Hong Kong, where the virus has been held in check; Malaysia, where numbers were less stable than appearances suggested; and the UAE, still in the early stages of the virus.Reflecting on these experiences, my impression is that the public in these countries is at various stages of a journey from annoyance to denial to shock and acceptance. After my snapshot visits I…