appsnaple t1_j216txf wrote
China went from one extreme to another extreme. They went from zero-covid for far too long then opened up quickly without being prepare. Seems that for the past 3 years Xi never made any plans for when he would re-open China and then under pressure from protests and from the business community, instead of a slow re-opening like many other countries in that region, Xi just opened the flood gates without having the hospitals ready, the medication, etc. I wouldn't be surprise if he did it as punishment to the people.
[deleted] t1_j21gfbj wrote
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fit_steve t1_j23xfo4 wrote
The virus doesn't play this way. With an insanely contagious variant like omicron (R number of 18) when you relax the rules you get an explosion in cases, not a slow re-opening. China knows this science.
appsnaple t1_j268s60 wrote
China knows the science and yet they don't have hospitals ready, are out of many medicines, and did a complete reopening rather than progressive opening knowing omicron is very contagious?
Sounds to me like you made up some BS to defend China.
edit: Oh, saw your other comments. You're the type unable to ever criticize the government of China.
fit_steve t1_j26sj5x wrote
Not true, I was a huge critic of zero covid and lockdowns when they were a thing. Now that China made the right decision I'm in favor because I want to travel.
Also there is no such thing as a "progressive opening" when it comes to omicron. Name one country that did so. All of them went through what China is going through now to some extent, just look at the US last year this time. It's because of the population in China and the lack of immunity at present which is why the surge is much bigger than other countries when they had their omicron outbreaks
[deleted] t1_j21xclc wrote
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A_Soporific t1_j22luh8 wrote
China has fewer Covid-rated emergency beds now than they did in 2020. Way more quarantine camps, way less in the way of emergency room beds. But the quarantine camps aren't set up to care for the most critically ill.
China could have announced that they were going to gradually reopen months ago. They could have done it in a phased way, building temporary hospitals (like they did back in 2020) and moving extra doctors and nurses from provinces still locked down to ease the transition in the area. Then, once the situation is stabilized they move to the next province. If they started with the most economically important provinces and saved the most politically sensitive for last they could have gotten everything they wanted out of it.
Instead, they held on to the lockdowns until something snapped. If the protests didn't happen then the horrible economic numbers would have. America is importing something like 40% less year over year. Strategic monopolies are being lost. Unemployment is way up, especially among recent graduates.
The problem isn't too soon or too late. The problem is if they were prepared for it or not. The only reason why they weren't prepared for it is because they didn't do the work while they had the chance.
There are people freaking the fuck out in China because they have been lied to for years about how bad it is in the rest of the world. It's such horrible whiplash to go from "everyone is dying but you because we have protected you" to "bro, it's just a flu". If you believe the Chinese government then of course you want the policy to continue because they told you that Covid is gonna kill everyone and Zero Covid is the only answer. If you really internalized that for years then how could you ever accept "lol, no biggie".
Despite officially hitting targets to vaccinate everyone, a majority of the elderly never got vaccinated. They only approved the more effective mRNA vaccines this month because they had been trying to strongarm the pharma companies to hand over the mRNA tech. They don't have the beds in hospitals prepared. They don't have a ramp up in doctors and nurses. It is too soon because they shit the bed in the planning department, but it was always going to be too soon because it really looks like the very tippy top of the CPC wanted to have covid lockdown powers forever. Unprecedented control over the movements of the people? The ability to turn anyone's code red at any time thus forcing them to come in for testing? The ability to put people in 'quarantine' that is identical to prison, only for your own good? Regular testing that just was between 1% and 2% of the entire Chinese economy that you can skim off the top from? It's a pretty sweet gig if you can get it. But, that just got in the way of unwinding before important bits started snapping and they couldn't stall any longer.
hkzombie t1_j22cp93 wrote
No prep work in mainland China for the case surge. Most of the world has high efficacy vaccinations, high vaccination rate, and treatment options by now.
Pfizer's paxlovid was approved in Feb 2022, but the supply wasn't enough to meet the case load (already sold out). Reports indicate that antipyretics/antifever meds (acetaminophen/panadol/tylenol) are also out of stock.
[deleted] t1_j23x0fx wrote
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hkzombie t1_j244fv3 wrote
>hospitalization and cases per 100k were driven by the vaccinated and two months after it was pretty clear no one was safe from it.
I have the feeling that you are going in a completely different direction, with your argument about the omicron impact on a population with high mRNA vaccination rate.
I'm not arguing about whether the Covid is here to stay or not, or about the impact of policy on infection rates. I'm arguing that the Chinese government made a major mistake because they didn't prepare for this scenario despite having an additional year to prep (unvaccinated hospitalization rate for Omicron is ~10x the hospitalization rate for mRNA vaccinated according to the US CDC).
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