Beijing locks itself down as a wave of cases and uncertainty follows 'zero Covid' retreat

[bronxiteforever]

NBC News
Dec. 17, 2022, 5:02 AM EST / Updated Dec. 17, 2022, 7:29 AM EST
By Marie Brockling, Angie Ling, Dorothy Kam and Olivia Guan

“More than half of my colleagues have Covid right now," one Beijing resident told NBC News of the virus surging through the capital of the world’s most populous country.

HONG KONG — Many people in China have bristled under the weight of “zero Covid” restrictions, strict measures to keep a tight grip on infections while much of the world opened back up.

Now those curbs are suddenly being swept aside in the wake of rare nationwide protests, and the capital of the world’s most populous country appears to be facing a wave of infections as the rapid policy shift presents new challenges ahead of the busy winter travel season.

Downtown Beijing was largely deserted this week as people seemingly stayed home to avoid infections. There are shortages of some medicines as residents stockpile them along with other supplies. Hospitals face a rise in patients and staff catching the virus. And there were social media reports of people panic-buying lemons and peaches after spurious social media trends suggested falsely that they were effective treatments.

“This is not a spike, this is a tsunami,” said Jin Dong-Yan, a professor at the University of Hong Kong who studies viral diseases… And because China has avoided large waves so far, it lacks the immunity through infection that many other countries have obtained as a side product of their massive and deadly waves.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/beijing-wave-cases-china-abandons-zero-covid-restrictions-rcna61633

Lots of new opportunities for the virus to mutate through some of the unvaccinated people in China. Worth keeping an eye on.

[Srkdqltr]

1. They had the choice and chose virus.

[Javaman]

6. They also have a much less effective vaccine

And chose not to use any of the ones the rest of the world are using

Plus much of the older population is very suspicious of anything the Chinese government gives them. As a result much of the older population is unvaccinated and are now the group with the highest case load

[dalton99a]

2. Xi Jinping should have allowed people to use foreign-made vaccines.

[bronxiteforever]

3. +1 exactly and his regime chose to silence

their hero Doctor and conceal the existence of the disease.

[Maraya1969]

4. On Google it said that 90% of the people are fully vaccinated. Did they use their own vaccine?

If not why are all these people getting sick?

[bronxiteforever]

5. In the article it says

The main worry is that millions of Chinese people — almost 1 in 3 over the age of 60, according to official figures — haven’t had a third booster shot, leaving them more exposed to serious illness.


Also this may explain it too
How China’s Sinovac compares with BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine
The need for three doses for similar protection has large implications for China
Apparently three doses is definitely required.

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/04/19/how-chinas-sinovac-compares-with-biontechs-mrna-vaccine

[JanMichael]

8. Interesting link. So it's not that the vaccine is necessarily crap.

Is that needed three doses to catch up Pfizer and started off slower. Then toss them in elderly people that don't get the third or the second vaccine and voila.

Kind of stunning though that they could manage to keep people stuck in their houses and got food delivered but couldn't get everyone stuck with the needle.

[Irish_Dem]

7. Vaccinated with less effective Chinese vaccines.

[Pluvious]

9. One gigantic Petri dish for the next variants 😕

[flamingdem]

10. They have already seen B7 start in China and it's super infectious

If you google it's already being talked about. ):

[bronxiteforever]

12. +1 scary stuff.

[bronxiteforever]

11. +1 very disturbing and the lack of trust

in Xi’s data makes this definitely a worry for the world.

[erronis]

13. Xi has also caused distrust in the Chinese population. Even tho the media is controlled

the people have lots of ways of exchanging information about what has happened.

He may have also demonstrated some weakness in his reactions. This could be very dangerous.

[bronxiteforever]

14. +1 Good point.