no good vaccines=no exit strategy, just arbtitrary enforcement of covid restrictions. As far as I know, People who died by omicron are 84 yrs old, on average, mostly unvaccinated and already seriously ill. In my compound, where more than 2 ,000 people live, we have had no cases for 3 weeks in a row. But it makes no difference. I am afraid this is a great chance for Beijing to reaffirm its absolute power over Shanghai and its western style of life . As a matter of fact, foreigners have started to leave the city and the country, if they are lucky enough to afford the price of a flight ticket. Getting rid of foreigners is one of the side effects the Authorities must be very pleased with. Utterly non sense and uncivilized.
It is indeed mysterious that no exit strategy other than the nonsensical "清零" slogan has been enunciated.
That said, whenever behavior appears irrational, one logical explanation is that we are missing a piece of crucial information about the motivations and goals in play. Is reducing the foreign population one of these goals, perhaps in connection with the deteriorating global political situation? AFAIK quite a few foreigners have indeed already left. For those without any deep roots this is completely understandable. That said, it's hard to imagine how such a goal alone could possibly justify the economic and political cost. Either something else is at play, or we are looking at a case of derangement.
Be that as it may, regardless of what they intend, we should not forget that reality often intervenes in the best of plans - and this is certainly not one of those!
agreed, we are missing a crucial part of info although I do have strong convictions about what is really going on; I am just uncomfortable speaking my mind loudly. They are bowlers not golfers here...
The Global Times article from today is even better:
"Shanghai has entered a "decisive battle" to stamp out coronavirus infections within communities since Friday, as the local government announced measures to double down on quarantine measures in residential compounds and scale up nucleic acid tests."
How is it possible to further "scale up" PCR tests?!
Then it goes on:
"The Shanghai government held a meeting on Friday night in which it vowed to implement the central government’s guidance on Shanghai’s antivirus battle, and to eliminate viral infection within communities as soon as possible. It also promised to take a more forceful approach to implement a zero-COVID strategy across all aspects of the battle with the virus."
"More forceful"...
Now it's serious. No more Mr. Nice Guy when dealing with this virus.
Out of experience in Hong Kong, this is exactly what happened. People weren't afraid of testing positive, they were afraid of being taken away to a poorly maintained quarantine facility for two weeks. Even your close contacts would be quarantined for two weeks, making it so that many people (unsurprisingly) lied about who they met, or where they went. For people who live paycheck to paycheck, this would essentially destroy their livelihoods. They would be out of money (since they won't get paid for weeks), could potentially not feed their families, and are at risk of losing their jobs.
When I returned to HK in January, the entire experience was so dehumanising. You’re literally treated like cattle, from the moment you get off the plane, you’re just following a long queue, going through different station, and end up waiting for hours without anyone telling you what’s going on.
Everyone on my flight ended up waiting for over 12 hours at the airport because people tested positive. Not a single person came to explain what was going on; it took several passengers shouting at staff to get bits of information. I saw a woman with kids break down in tears because she too had been there for over 12 hours.
Don’t even get me started on the two week quarantine; I felt like I was treated as a prisoner. I’ve lived here long enough to not expect decent customer service, but it wasn’t my choice to be locked up for two weeks. The least staff can do is to treat people nicer.
Given that even the WHO admitted that the PCR test is NOT reliable, and given that I don't believe that China 'politicians have been bought by Bill Gates (they didn't give the mRNA poison to their people) I wander why this was permitted.
The simplest explanation is that they honestly believed the virus was a dangerous bio-weapon, and that focused lockdowns were the best way to curb its spread. Rumors to this effect were quite widespread in February 2020.
... that said, even if that really was the reason, this does not excuse them for (a) failing to take note of the updated information on the relatively low danger posed by the later post-Wuhan variants, nor does it excuse them for (b) ignoring the advice of their own top doctors, nor does it excuse them for (c) ignoring the easily accessible information about effective treatments (e.g. HCQ + zinc), nor does it excuse them for (d) failing to consider the astronomical economic and social costs of using lockdowns as a control strategy.
no good vaccines=no exit strategy, just arbtitrary enforcement of covid restrictions. As far as I know, People who died by omicron are 84 yrs old, on average, mostly unvaccinated and already seriously ill. In my compound, where more than 2 ,000 people live, we have had no cases for 3 weeks in a row. But it makes no difference. I am afraid this is a great chance for Beijing to reaffirm its absolute power over Shanghai and its western style of life . As a matter of fact, foreigners have started to leave the city and the country, if they are lucky enough to afford the price of a flight ticket. Getting rid of foreigners is one of the side effects the Authorities must be very pleased with. Utterly non sense and uncivilized.
It is indeed mysterious that no exit strategy other than the nonsensical "清零" slogan has been enunciated.
That said, whenever behavior appears irrational, one logical explanation is that we are missing a piece of crucial information about the motivations and goals in play. Is reducing the foreign population one of these goals, perhaps in connection with the deteriorating global political situation? AFAIK quite a few foreigners have indeed already left. For those without any deep roots this is completely understandable. That said, it's hard to imagine how such a goal alone could possibly justify the economic and political cost. Either something else is at play, or we are looking at a case of derangement.
Be that as it may, regardless of what they intend, we should not forget that reality often intervenes in the best of plans - and this is certainly not one of those!
agreed, we are missing a crucial part of info although I do have strong convictions about what is really going on; I am just uncomfortable speaking my mind loudly. They are bowlers not golfers here...
Sun Chunlan's latest 9-point "plan": https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202204/1260029.shtml
The Global Times article from today is even better:
"Shanghai has entered a "decisive battle" to stamp out coronavirus infections within communities since Friday, as the local government announced measures to double down on quarantine measures in residential compounds and scale up nucleic acid tests."
How is it possible to further "scale up" PCR tests?!
Then it goes on:
"The Shanghai government held a meeting on Friday night in which it vowed to implement the central government’s guidance on Shanghai’s antivirus battle, and to eliminate viral infection within communities as soon as possible. It also promised to take a more forceful approach to implement a zero-COVID strategy across all aspects of the battle with the virus."
"More forceful"...
Now it's serious. No more Mr. Nice Guy when dealing with this virus.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202204/1260045.shtml
Comment from woutr_be on Hacker News:
Out of experience in Hong Kong, this is exactly what happened. People weren't afraid of testing positive, they were afraid of being taken away to a poorly maintained quarantine facility for two weeks. Even your close contacts would be quarantined for two weeks, making it so that many people (unsurprisingly) lied about who they met, or where they went. For people who live paycheck to paycheck, this would essentially destroy their livelihoods. They would be out of money (since they won't get paid for weeks), could potentially not feed their families, and are at risk of losing their jobs.
When I returned to HK in January, the entire experience was so dehumanising. You’re literally treated like cattle, from the moment you get off the plane, you’re just following a long queue, going through different station, and end up waiting for hours without anyone telling you what’s going on.
Everyone on my flight ended up waiting for over 12 hours at the airport because people tested positive. Not a single person came to explain what was going on; it took several passengers shouting at staff to get bits of information. I saw a woman with kids break down in tears because she too had been there for over 12 hours.
Don’t even get me started on the two week quarantine; I felt like I was treated as a prisoner. I’ve lived here long enough to not expect decent customer service, but it wasn’t my choice to be locked up for two weeks. The least staff can do is to treat people nicer.
Hacker News Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31150370
Given that even the WHO admitted that the PCR test is NOT reliable, and given that I don't believe that China 'politicians have been bought by Bill Gates (they didn't give the mRNA poison to their people) I wander why this was permitted.
BTW I love Chinese people way of resisting 😊🥰
You wonder why what was permitted?
Yes, I do. The plandemic was built to poison people and to reach the full control through the Vax passport.
But China didn't poison Chinese people, and to me it looks like that you guys have more freedom than European people.
So. Why did they implement the lockdowns?
The simplest explanation is that they honestly believed the virus was a dangerous bio-weapon, and that focused lockdowns were the best way to curb its spread. Rumors to this effect were quite widespread in February 2020.
... that said, even if that really was the reason, this does not excuse them for (a) failing to take note of the updated information on the relatively low danger posed by the later post-Wuhan variants, nor does it excuse them for (b) ignoring the advice of their own top doctors, nor does it excuse them for (c) ignoring the easily accessible information about effective treatments (e.g. HCQ + zinc), nor does it excuse them for (d) failing to consider the astronomical economic and social costs of using lockdowns as a control strategy.
But at least they didn't poison the people!