With record covid cases, China scrambles to plug an immunity gap
Source: Washington Post
By Christian Shepherd and Vic Chiang November 25, 2022 at 2:30 a.m. EST
A coronavirus outbreak on the verge of being Chinas biggest of the pandemic has exposed a critical flaw in Beijings zero covid strategy: a vast population without natural immunity. After months with only occasional hot spots in the country, most of its 1.4 billion people have never been exposed to the virus.
Chinese authorities, who on Thursday reported a record 31,656 infections, are scrambling to protect the most vulnerable populations. They have launched a more aggressive vaccine drive to boost immunity, expanded hospital capacity and started to restrict the movement of at-risk groups. The elderly, who have an especially low vaccination rate, are a key target.
These efforts, which stop short of approving foreign vaccines, are an attempt to keep the virus from overwhelming a health-care system ill-prepared for a flood of very sick covid patients.
More intensive-care beds and better vaccination coverage should have started 2½ years ago, but the single-minded focus on containment meant fewer resources focused on this, said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Pandemic control workers help erect a metal barrier fence Thursday outside a Beijing community under lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/25/china-covid-infection-vaccines-outbreak/
tanyev
(42,354 posts)And once they realized their vaccine wasn't very effective, they should have started bringing in foreign vaccines. Some countries have dealt with this much more effectively than others, but it seems like every country eventually got tripped up one way or another.
dalton99a
(81,062 posts)hay rick
(7,520 posts)The zero Covid policy was never achievable and an inflexible regime failed to learn from experience. It looks like the zero Covid dogma also handicapped China in vaccine development and uptake.
NickB79
(19,109 posts)Compared to the Pfizer and Moderna shots we have.
So vaccination drives have even less effect, and more breakthrough cases.
IronLionZion
(45,250 posts)China's vaccine is terrible but Pfizer and Moderna are excellent so why not just buy the foreign ones? The whole world buys Chinese stuff so they should buy something of ours for a change.
nycbos
(6,032 posts)Xi doesn't want to be seen getting help from the west.
AZLD4Candidate
(5,558 posts)It isn't about effective. . .it's about keeping the narrative that China is better than everyone else.
Buying foreign vaccines means the CCP failed Can't have that.
progree
(10,864 posts)Last edited Fri Nov 25, 2022, 08:39 PM - Edit history (1)
Going out in the capital of Beijing means having to scan a QR code to enter venues like shops and restaurants, or to even take public transportation. Under the countrys ubiquitous contract-tracing surveillance system, visiting the same places as someone who later turns up infected can land you in a government isolation facility, where conditions can be so poor that some people say they are buying chamber pots and portable tents in preparation.
Thats why the capital has largely battened down. People are staying at home as transmission increases, even though the overall risk of infection remains low, with 1,854 cases reported for the city of 22 million people on Thursday.
Im not scared of getting infected at all, said Liu, a 36 year-old who works in the media industry. Im in fear of getting locked down or even sent to a quarantine facility. Theres a higher chance I end up there if I scan those codes to get into public venues.
More: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/fear-of-quarantine-camps-not-covid-is-shutting-beijing-down/ar-AA14xMOk
Some Reported Daily New Cases Per 100,000 population, 7 day moving average:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html
104 South Korea
69 Japan
58 France
49 Italy
...
31 New Mexico
26 Arizona
...
13 U.S.
...
2 China
Granted all reported case statistics are an undercount
I know, I know. China is probably cheating. But whenever I post some U.S. state statistics, people tell me the red states are all cheating. And so it goes. Sigh.
speak easy
(9,097 posts)the U.S. has reported 100 million cases out of a population of 330 million
progree
(10,864 posts)Usually I get it right after 5 edits. But not always.
I used to have a template so that helped get the words right. But hardly anyone posts Covid statistics anymore, so I've gotten out of practice.
I corrected the line above the table to:
Some Reported Daily New Cases Per 100,000 population, 7 day moving average.
I'll have to quick-fix it at the other place I posted it before someone notices
I see from Worldometers the cumulative --
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Total reported cases (cumulative) per 1 million population
300,043 U.S.
402,581 Italy
573,173 France
208 China
As always, reported cases are a vast undercount.
IbogaProject
(2,692 posts)Both major Cuban COVID vaccines are very effective. And while the PR isn't as strong as their own, it could still be part of their political rhetoric.
paleotn
(17,778 posts)for the most mismanaged pandemic response in recorded history. China is not, nor can it be, an island, easily cutoff from the rest of the world. Unless the entire globe united in iron clad quarantining and squashed Covid, it was only a matter of time until it was everywhere. From Terra Del Fuego to Greenland. Since it's endemic everywhere now, what was China planning to do? On and off lock downs from now to forever? What idiots!
Ford_Prefect
(7,817 posts)Kennah
(14,115 posts)Because COVID-23 is on the way