China's COVID policymaking under scrutiny as infections soar

This is crazy. Should we lock down all travel too and from China? Start with the 10 day quarantine for everyone returning from China. And, how is Hong Kong any different?

@Bronco

Good point. Sinopharm vaccine has as little as 12% protection, As opposed to other countries, I doubt they even have a choice to choose the type of vaccine.

Heard that those with money to do so are migrating to Singapore and elsewhere, (which they‘ve been doing for decades) Surely they are frustrated as we all are.

Now they're told that the vaccine was never meant to stop transmission (which wasn't said when the shots were offered) and that endless boosters would be required because of "waning"

For the rest of the world this is not something new, even before vaccines were developed the appearance of variants was predicted to reduce the efficacy of all kinds of immunity against the disease, and boosters contemplated from even that point.

No wonder the people are fed up and now distrust the authorities.

What makes no sense is to distrust the actual scientific consensus that warned the Chinese government was acting wrong from a long time ago, if one single government is against the doctors and scientists of the whole world then it is quite obvious who is more likely to be in the wrong.

China's COVID policymaking under scrutiny as infections soar

Nothing new---Japan's Covid policymaking is also under scrutiny as infections soar.

And so were the policies of Australia and New Zealand, which had some of the highest rates last year.

As the science world does not have a cohesive consensus, each country has relied on different sets of expert advice. Not unusual.

Nothing new---Japan's Covid policymaking is also under scrutiny as infections soar.

Completely different situation, Japan has not been accused (with evidence) of hiding and misrepresenting completely the situation with the pandemic, nor about acting against the recommendations of global public health authorities causing thousands of unnecessary deaths every day.

One thing is to act according to the best possible policies according to scientific evidence and still be unable to completely control a very easily spread infectious disease, another much different is to act against those scientifically proved strategies for 2 years and then causing a disaster long predicted by the international experts.

Completely different situation, Japan has not been accused (with evidence) of hiding and misrepresenting completely the situation with the pandemic, nor about acting against the recommendations of global public health authorities causing thousands of unnecessary deaths every day. 

Same situation, and Japan has been accused (with evidence--easily available) of hiding and misrepresenting the situation.

One thing is to act according to the best possible policies according to scientific evidence and still be unable to completely control a very easily spread infectious disease, another much different is to act against those scientifically proved strategies for 2 years and then causing a disaster long predicted by the international experts.

This is just your personal opinion with no scientific expert support.

With estimates of millions of daily cases and at least 1 million COVID deaths next year, global experts say the world's most populous nation needs to bolster its medical infrastructure quickly. 

A disgrace at this stage of the game.

Discontent had been building for a long time, but once demonstrators started chanting publicly that leader Xi Jinping should resign and the Communist Party give up power, that was more than even this country's all-powerful government could bear.

If the fan club can't accept that, it's ok. Their silence fills in the gaps.

@Painkiller

Same situation, and Japan has been accused (with evidence--easily available) of hiding and misrepresenting the situation.

This is just your personal opinion with no scientific expert support.

>

Same situation, and Japan has been accused (with evidence--easily available) of hiding and misrepresenting the situation.

Any reference for this? because it is very different to have incomplete information at the very beginning of the pandemic than completely stop reporting deaths as China did, that would make a huge difference.

This is just your personal opinion with no scientific expert support.

On the contrary, this is a well reported problem for China that do not apply to Japan, the WHO (global authority in public health matters) explicitly said the Chinese policy was unsustainable and risked the health and lives of their population because of their lack of focus on protecting the population, which is exactly what happened.

No such criticism has been done for Japan.

the WHO (global authority in public health matters) explicitly said the Chinese policy was unsustainable and risked the health and lives of their population because of their lack of focus on protecting the population, which is exactly what happened.

Indeed. Reports from people in rural areas across China of mass infections, deaths, and healthcare woes, including areas where authorities say infections are yet to peak. 

One woman in Shandong said her parents had not been vaccinated because they did not trust Chinese vaccines, and now feared going outside as the virus spread through their village.

Villagers in Guangdong province reported shortages of medication and oxygen supplies. 

In Shaanxi a musician who played at funerals reported being busier than ever, while a woman returning to her small Hunan village decried at least six new customary funeral sheds – temporary structures built for people to mourn an individual.

Seems Zero covid was not the best policy for the health of the people after all as Painkiller frequently said until the protests. Painkiller was wrong all along. At least the WHO corrected their mistakes. He/she should "man-up" and admit he/she was wrong all along.

Elvis is hereToday  02:08 pm JST

One woman in Shandong said her parents had not been vaccinated because they did not trust Chinese vaccines, and now feared going outside as the virus spread through their village.

Exactly as happened in the UK, US, Japan, New Zealand, Australia.

Nothing new.

250 million Chinese infected. Nearly 37 million people in China may have been infected with Covid-19 on a single day in Late December. The morgues are full.

Bodies are being burnt on the street.

https://nypost.com/2023/01/04/bodies-burned-in-streets-of-china-with-funeral-homes-inundated-by-covid-deaths/

Not looking good.

Cancelled our tour of the Peking Opera.

Exactly as happened in the UK, US, Japan, New Zealand, Australia.

Nothing new.

Only people reading tea leaves can compared Shandong province with separate countries. Some characteristic straw grasping there.

And anyway, that all is beside the point as Australia etc problems happened ages ago.

Three years in China is STILL not prepared for the predicted 1,000,000 deaths. The plan is to enjoy Chinese New Year and not to infect the elderly and disabled who can't won't get vaxxed!!!!

That is a disgrace and you know it.

President Xi admitted he was wrong about his zero covid policy. Millions died because of it.

Really? What was happening until the protests?

The speed of the change since the protests in China's Covid approach (that Painkiller said will go know where) has been breathtaking.

What triggered this dramatic about-face were the (nowhere) protests. Discontent had been building for a long time, but once demonstrators started chanting publicly that leader Xi Jinping should resign and the Communist Party give up power, that was more than even this country's all-powerful government could bear.

In actual fact the government did nothing to prepare the country for the inevitable. And you gloated over that for months. Disgusting.

*nowhere

Sinopharm vaccine has as little as 12% protection

Where did you get that number? I've seen numbers ranging from 38 to 86% effectiveness against symptomatic infection. So it might be somewhat less effective than the mRNA injections, but also considerably less risky. So I doubt they will ever adopt the mRNA injections...

So it might be somewhat less effective than the mRNA injections, but also considerably less risky.

The available data clearly points out to a significative decrease of the efficacy, for example

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1008521/full

There is no evidence that indicates "considerable less risky" taking into account the amount of risk it is not preventing this is extremely difficult to believe. One thing is that the Sinopharm vaccine is better than no vaccine, another completely different that it is better (in any way) than the best available vaccines. The CCP is using a subpar vaccine that puts the population at a higher degree of risk without any real justification, it is still disregarding the advice coming from the best available scientific evidence which is what has caused this disaster in the first place.

The CCP is using a subpar vaccine that puts the population at a higher degree of risk without any real justification, it is still disregarding the advice coming from the best available scientific evidence which is what has caused this disaster in the first place.

If such evidence was available in the first place, every country in the world decided to ignore it.

Based on the best scientific advice from the best scientific experts at the time.

The ONLY reason to do these lockdowns would have been:

There was no other way to treat infections ala NZ early on.

To slow the spread to buy time while undergoing a massive nation-wide vaccination campaign with a proven effective vaccine. One would thing this would be the kind of thing an authoritarian dictatorship would excell at..

To buy time while ramping up the healthcare system to meet the coming wave of infections. Were they not fans of showing off to the world how they could build fully functioning hospitals in 10 days or less? What hapened to that?

China did nothing regarding the latter two and now it reaps what it has sewn.

If such evidence was available in the first place, every country in the world decided to ignore it.

Based on the best scientific advice from the best scientific experts at the time.

That is completely false, most countries that had the posibility of getting the best available vaccines (and other measures) did it without pretending people would be fine with much less effective versions.

The whole point is that the CCP choose NOT to listen to the best scientific advice from the best scientific experts of the world, meaning that the responsability of the disaster happening now in China comes is completely on them.

Not being able to prevent deaths while doing the best possible is completely different from causing those deaths by not doing it.

President Xi's lockins was a political one, not a scientific one.

After China scrapped three years of zero-COVID curbs in 30 days, setting off a massive wave of infections, Beijing's policymakers face an immense challenge to treat the sick and minimize deaths while winning back public trust dented by previous policies.

Private services offering Chinese travellers access to mRNA vaccines are attracting droves of mainlanders to Hong Kong and Macau seeking a booster shot that their government has refused to approve.

Some 900 million people in China have been infected with the coronavirus as of 11 January, according to a study by Peking University. 

The report estimates that 64% of the country's population has the virus.

International health experts have predicted at least a million Covid-related deaths in China this year.

Three years in, with no exit plan that's what happens. A humanitarian disgrace