China’s zero COVID policy seems extreme in my opinion. I am at a loss of the reasoning and trying to wrap my head around it. At the beginning of the pandemic (with more uncertainty and with less knowledge), I could understand it but it just seems odd at this juncture.
Trying to lockdown millions/ billions for extended periods seems impossible. It would seem that policy is futile; can’t lockdown forever. At this point, you would think that Omicron and it’s subvariants have been shown to have a lower mortality rate despite its contagiousness. It would seem many countries have come to this conclusion and essentially determined that it is now endemic.
The societal and economic costs of such a lockdown are enormous especially if they don’t open back up soon. Are the public heath concerns of COVID still that strong to justify such measures more that 2 years into the pandemic?
Some of the reports out of China seem a bit intense. Some people/ communities seem at their breaking point and are bucking. Maybe it’s just sensationalism or isolated incidents.
I’m not one generally for conspiracy theories but something just seems off.
What are your thoughts? Although some sort of ulterior motive seems unlikely, I find myself oddly considering different possibilities that pop into my head for some reason.
1) Maybe the Chinese government legitimately wants to contain COVID. Maybe they feel that their health system would be overwhelmed. Or maybe their vaccine is so ineffective and they do not want the embarrassment of the west having more successful vaccines. They want to protect their elderly/ vulnerable. Maybe the contagiousness of Omicron has led to China becoming more aggressive with public health policy. Maybe the number of deaths from COVID were a lot higher than they portrayed and they are genuinely worried about public health.
2) Maybe the rising costs of natural resources as a result of the Russia/ Ukraine war is causing China to conserve resources. Is the war going to cause such an eventual energy and food shortage that China is trying to secretly reduce consumption (while simultaneously quietly hoarding) and COVID lockdown is a means to accomplish this?
3) Are COVID lockdowns a means to harm the US and the west? The US and the world have become so dependent on global trade. Are lockdowns a means to weaponize the fragility of the supply chain? Supply chain disruptions will become apparent in several months; there is a lag. So much of our manufacturing and components comes from China. What happens when China stops producing? We saw huge supply chain disruptions as a result of COVID become more apparent last year. What will happen in the future when China opens back up (recurrent port congestion/ supply chain disruptions)? Or worse- what happens if they don’t open up in the near future? Just in time inventory has been a great component in manufacturing efficiency over the past several decades. But the downside is that process reduces redundancy/ back up inventory in disruptions.
4) Is there something about COVID that we don’t know? Maybe eventual deleterious effects that aren’t apparent now? There are those with long COVID but for most it seems there are no long term sequelaeMaybe a more worrisome strain that they fear? This seems unlikely to me. If this was the case, wouldn’t it be better to let Omicron burn through and get it over with to let medium term immunity build while Omicron is the dominant strain?
5) Is this some sort of weird control thing by the Chinese government over its people? Is it some sort of societal control / oppression?
Trying to lockdown millions/ billions for extended periods seems impossible. It would seem that policy is futile; can’t lockdown forever. At this point, you would think that Omicron and it’s subvariants have been shown to have a lower mortality rate despite its contagiousness. It would seem many countries have come to this conclusion and essentially determined that it is now endemic.
The societal and economic costs of such a lockdown are enormous especially if they don’t open back up soon. Are the public heath concerns of COVID still that strong to justify such measures more that 2 years into the pandemic?
Some of the reports out of China seem a bit intense. Some people/ communities seem at their breaking point and are bucking. Maybe it’s just sensationalism or isolated incidents.
I’m not one generally for conspiracy theories but something just seems off.
What are your thoughts? Although some sort of ulterior motive seems unlikely, I find myself oddly considering different possibilities that pop into my head for some reason.
1) Maybe the Chinese government legitimately wants to contain COVID. Maybe they feel that their health system would be overwhelmed. Or maybe their vaccine is so ineffective and they do not want the embarrassment of the west having more successful vaccines. They want to protect their elderly/ vulnerable. Maybe the contagiousness of Omicron has led to China becoming more aggressive with public health policy. Maybe the number of deaths from COVID were a lot higher than they portrayed and they are genuinely worried about public health.
2) Maybe the rising costs of natural resources as a result of the Russia/ Ukraine war is causing China to conserve resources. Is the war going to cause such an eventual energy and food shortage that China is trying to secretly reduce consumption (while simultaneously quietly hoarding) and COVID lockdown is a means to accomplish this?
3) Are COVID lockdowns a means to harm the US and the west? The US and the world have become so dependent on global trade. Are lockdowns a means to weaponize the fragility of the supply chain? Supply chain disruptions will become apparent in several months; there is a lag. So much of our manufacturing and components comes from China. What happens when China stops producing? We saw huge supply chain disruptions as a result of COVID become more apparent last year. What will happen in the future when China opens back up (recurrent port congestion/ supply chain disruptions)? Or worse- what happens if they don’t open up in the near future? Just in time inventory has been a great component in manufacturing efficiency over the past several decades. But the downside is that process reduces redundancy/ back up inventory in disruptions.
4) Is there something about COVID that we don’t know? Maybe eventual deleterious effects that aren’t apparent now? There are those with long COVID but for most it seems there are no long term sequelaeMaybe a more worrisome strain that they fear? This seems unlikely to me. If this was the case, wouldn’t it be better to let Omicron burn through and get it over with to let medium term immunity build while Omicron is the dominant strain?
5) Is this some sort of weird control thing by the Chinese government over its people? Is it some sort of societal control / oppression?
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