Irish Examiner View: Spread of coronavirus raises many questions

The imposition of a 10-year jail sentence on a Chinese bookseller may, in the great sweep of history, seem a second division issue even if it is an affront to the idea of free speech and human rights.

Nevertheless, a court in the city of Ningbo jailed Gui Minhai on Monday for selling books that satirised the Communist Party.

That he sold them in Hong Kong, where they are legal, rather than in mainland China, where they are banned, is a minor detail that did not impinge on the court.

The autocracy of the Chinese state is frightening so Minhai’s fate, awful as it is, is unsurprising. It does, however, offer at this moment a sharp warning.

If a State so indifferent to the rights and freedoms of individuals or communities cannot contain the coronavirus, how might the far more laid back, facilitating West cope with an outbreak?

As Irish tourists are stuck in a Tenerife hotel which has been placed under quarantine after an Italian doctor staying there tested positive for the coronavirus, it may be time to think about how we might cope with Garda-enforced quarantines.

The prospect raises many questions