“If parents test positive for COVID and need to be isolated, the city will provide rapid assistance to underserved children. […] they will be appointed a ‘temporary guardian’ or relocated to places provided for that purpose”. These statements are from Shanghai municipal official Zeng Qun and not the beginning of 2020, however it may seem: how far to go to get out of the pandemic mess that China is currently in. I can’t think of a better example of being willing.

Shanghai remains in quarantine. In other words, while I am writing these lines, 26 million people have been locked in their homes for days and waiting for the COVID numbers to improve. The problem is they don’t. Despite the measures of the Chinese Government, the epidemic, which affected China’s largest city, did not stop growing.

The latest official data mention 438 new confirmed cases in hospital centers and another 7,788 asymptomatic cases detected in detention and control campaigns; what does the translation mean: more than the previous day.

what is coming. And indeed, these are modest numbers if we compare them to those used by Western countries during these two years. But we’re talking about what will be the biggest outbreak in the country in a few days since the city of Wuhan was shut down at the end of 2019. So, it’s not more about what is than what it is now. puts it on the table.

It’s a tense situation…. And it is full of uncertainties. That’s because authorities asked city residents to self-assess daily to rule out the presence of the virus and recommended using masks at home or avoiding contact with family members. In recent days, several exhibition halls in the city have been turned into temporary quarantine centers as the strict isolation policy of the positives continues.

…where food, medicine and other services are lacking. Although the closure of the city began on April 1, there are areas that have been closed for more than two weeks. And we’re talking about a really strict quarantine where you can’t even go out to shop. This has already been noticed supply issues In a city that isn’t logistically prepared for such a challenge, food (home deliveries overwhelmed), drug availability, and any service going through a major bottleneck.

China committed to COVIDZero. Communist Party Politburo member Sun Chunlan made a self-criticism a few days ago, calling for “quick and decisive measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 in Shanghai as soon as possible.” However, he stressed the country’s “unwavering commitment” to “COVIDZero”, despite recognizing the social and economic cost of this strategy.

cover up other problems. This insistence on strategy is making more and more experts think that this is not an “option”, that its vaccines are the only way China will stop the epidemic after immunodeficiency. Throughout 2021, we could see more reports appearing that put Chinese vaccines at a lower efficacy step compared to Western vaccines.

First, because although they did protect against serious illness and death, they were not very effective against contamination (we’re talking about 50% or less effectiveness). And secondly, the immunity seemed to decrease very quickly. After all, if we look at the official figures, China has more than 85% of its population vaccinated and yet it has been shutting down parts of the country for months to stop Omicron.

perfect storm. Without natural immunity, with waning acquired immunity and a way to fight the virus that doesn’t repeat the same strategies used at the start of the pandemic, China finds itself on a street where self-defense is very difficult. Find the solution Exit. Even more so, with a CCP Congress next November that could complicate the life of President Xi Jinping, who is almost untouchable.

Image | Joshua Fernandez