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© 2022 AFPChina's mass testing program building a waste mountain
By Matthew WALSH BEIJING©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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© 2022 AFP
15 Comments
painkiller
Near-daily testing is the most commonly used weapon in an anti-virus arsenal that includes snap lockdowns and forced quarantines when just a few cases are detected.
Weren't other countries doing testing? Didn't the agency arm of the UN, the WHO, recommend testing?
Through all the criticism though, China has statistically the lowest rate of infections in the world, and unlike the US, did not lose anywhere close to 1 million lives. International experts who support the zero covid policy are right on the mark.
In addition to saving the health of its citizens, it is also the only country that experienced positive economic growth throughout the entire crisis.
But let's criticize the country now for making trash.
Sheikh Yerboaby
well I am shocked that a country with a waste disposal track record that makes Mr Burns of Springfield look like Recycler of the year has been found wanting in the disposal of covid waste....shocked I tells ya!
Seigi
Nonsense propaganda which was also advocated by fear mongers in 2020 and 2021! Where are they now?
The Avenger
Beijing claims that from the beginning of 2020 to June, 2022, the loss of life had been capped at a little over 19,000.
Who actually believes this number?
virusrex
That was two years ago, when it was effective and necessary because of lack of better measures, right now it is unsustainable, inneffective and unnecessary. Testing is fine, but lockdowns have been replaced with vigilance and reduction of risk by vaccination and effective treatments (and a variant that complicates at a much lower rate).
The WHO (global authority on public health matters) at this points do not recommend the zero covid policy.
Unfortunately for China the death rates could be lower if it choose to abandon its current approach, as proved by other countries that have lower rates and do not need to systematically underreport them.
This is complicated by the fact that the measures used by China produce deaths by themselves by making people lose their jobs and end up in poverty as well as interrupting their access to health services, both things already considered unnecessary by other approaches that produce simiilar or even lower covid death rates.
There are no international experts that currently (as in 2022) support this policy as necessary or even effective.
noriahojanen
By testing their biometric info must also be stolen or seized without consent.
fallaffel
@painkiller: Zero covid is, of course, not a sustainable policy (lockdowns forever?). Even the Chinese government will have to realize this eventually.
virusrex
The WHO is an authority according to the UN
https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/2013/09/who-world-health-organisation/
And by its own constitution
https://apps.who.int/gb/bd/PDF/bd47/EN/constitution-en.pdf
This clearly, explictly contradicts your persona belief. Also scientific or medical authority means it has the power to decide what is the best course of action in public health according to science, not to force anybody to do what is best. It is the same as a doctor that has no power to force a patient to undergo a treatment even if that is the best course of action, according to your mistaken concept doctors would not have any medical authority.
That is precisely what makes it a scientific authority, because everything it says has to be based on available evidence. Since there was no evidence pointing out a benefit from mask use on the general population while there was evidence that masks were useful on the hospital environment that means prioritizing their use on hospitals is a perfectly valid and correct advice according to the evidence available at the moment, specially with important scarcity of the masks.
But again, unfortunately for their citizens it could be better, people would not lose ther jobs or businesses nor they would have to die because they can't go to a hospital if China abandoned their policy, and the best thing is that other countries demonstrate this would not mean an increase of death rates is even necessary.
virusrex
The worse thing? their results have been systematically abused to deprive them of their human rights, making people magically become positive to covid in order to isolate them when they are doing things the government disagrees with.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/93a53v/china-covid-health-code-protest-henan
OKuniyoshi
Now you know why i am, and lots of Asians, read commentaries, if we read them, reports etc etc with skepticism and shack of the head. We are no fools.
Alternative is? no test? Perhaps, more dead bodies is better than more medical waste??
Beside, every country do test, if absolute number, perhaps China produced the most, its population is the highest in the world, bear in mind. You don't hear/see such reports/commentaries about other countries, especially Western countries.
painkiller
OKuniyoshiToday 07:54 pm JST
Exactly. Good points.
Gave up your argument on:
Regardless, an agency calling itself an authority doesn't make it an authority. That is easy to comprehend.
The WHO had scientific evidence on mask use from the SARS crisis almost 20 years before; any laymen like all of us are aware of that.
From someone who used to argue for natural immunity against Covid, well, I'll leave it at that.
virusrex
You asked for a source where the WHO said it was an authority, but it was not the only reference given, even if you want it very much the UN has more credibility than you, so if you say they are lying when they call the WHO an authority that means it is you who is mistaken.
The same applies to your mistaken argument that agencies are not able to be authorities just because you want to believe it so.
Apparently not, because the evidence is, again, about their use in health care environment, which is precisely why the WHO recommended the masks to be prioritized there, where the evidence of use was available.
You keep contradicting yourself and making baseless claims that are quickly debunked, that means you understand you are mistaken, just unable to accept being demonstrated as such.
Alternatives are various, from actually adequate disposal of waste to avoid environmental damage to tolerance of infection while taking care of the reduced risk thanks to vaccination and effective treatment, the only reason why China insist on the zero covid policy is because it lets them control better the population, even if it gives no better results than other countries that do not require to test continuously the population.
painkiller
Nope--a source that says it is a global authority, as you keep claiming.
You misunderstand the whole issue, so you revert to trying to claim the WHO is a global authority; which is obviously not true, since China is making its own decisions, Because you are not a medical professional, it it understandable why you keep making this mistake.
virusrex
The UN saying so is a perfectly valid source, and obviously much more credible than you. Trying to ignore the link and quote that explicitly demonstrate it as such is not making you look any better.
The UN is the one making that claim, not me. And so are all other recognized institutions of public health and medical science. The only one saying it is not is again you.
Again making baseless accusations coming from your imagination? there is very little anybody can do to demonstrate not having any argument than making up stuff.
GBR48
quote: Weren't other countries doing testing?
Only when necessary. Testing was often used on random groups and then extrapolated to give national infection rates. I have never been tested for Covid.
quote: the only country that experienced positive economic growth throughout the entire crisis.
Covid Zero is now killing their economy.
quote: China has statistically the lowest rate of infections in the world.
Chinese stats are even less trustworthy than other nations. In the UK, if you tested positive for asymptomatic Covid and were fine, but got hit by a truck two weeks later, you were officially classed as a Covid death. Never trust a government stat.
There is a balance. If you keep everyone locked down, permanently, effectively banning most human interaction, you cut deaths from communicable diseases like STDs as well as flu complications. But you ruin lives, educations, livelihoods, businesses, the economy, and mental health. You also make people more vulnerable from ordinary day-to-day infections, as their immune system is not trained to deal with them by encountering bugs.
Xi's Covid Zero, like Japan's tourist policy, is manipulative and political, and has nothing to do with medical science.
Incidentally, there is nothing to stop 'Painkiller' from moving to China, or living a 'Covid Zero' life in a rural area in Japan, should they wish. The joy of living outside China, is that you have a choice.