![]() 8 Elie Dolgin, “Omicron Thwarts Some of the World’s Most-Used COVID Vaccines,” Nature, January 13, 2022, and Sumathi Bala, “China’s Zero-Covid Strategy ‘Won’t Work’ against Omicron, Says US Epidemiologist,” CNBC, February 6, 2022. Tests have showed that the two Chinese vaccines offered only limited protection against variants. Yet those vaccines, based on an inactive form of the virus, have become generally less effective as the COVID-19 virus has evolved. 7 For doses in China, see National Health Commission of PRC, “Nearly 2.9b COVID-19 Doses Administered on Chinese Mainland,” via Xinhua News Agency, January 11, 2022, and for doses sold or donated abroad, see “China COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker,” Bridge Consulting (Beijing). By early January 2022, nearly 2.9 billion doses of Chinese-produced COVID-19 vaccines had been given to the country’s 1.4 billion people, and another 1.41 billion doses sold or donated abroad as of March 21, 2022. 6 For number of nurses in China, see David Fickling and Anjani Trivedi, “Supply Chain Snarls May Be Here to Stay, Too,” Bloomberg Opinion, January 13, 2022, and for hospital beds, see Robin Xing, Jenny Zheng, Zhipeng Cai, and Helen Lai, “Omicron in China: Impact and Policy Implications,” Morgan Stanley, January 9, 2022. The country has 2.7 nurses per one thousand people, well below the average of 11.5 in the advanced economies, and only 4.4 intensive care beds per one hundred thousand people versus 25.8 in the United States and 33.9 in Germany. The rationale for the zero-COVID policy was anchored, in part, in the reality of China’s ill-equipped public health system. 5 “China Finds New Virus Subtype as Daily Cases Exceed 13,000,” Bloomberg, April 2, 2022. There are even reports that a new, homegrown strain of Omicron has emerged. The outbreaks have raised the very real possibility that the zero-focused approach can no longer contain the pandemic. It’s Now All about ‘Dynamic Clearing,’ ” Bloomberg, January 11, 2022, Alexandra Stevenson, “China’s Lockdown Shows Stubborn Resolve on Zero-Covid,” New York Times, January 6, 2022, for March 2022 outbreaks, see “China’s Covid Lockdowns Could Threaten Half of Economy,” Bloomberg, March 14, 2022, and “Entire Shanghai Placed under Lockdown, ” Bloomberg, April 1, 2022. 4 For Delta outbreaks, see Shuli Ren, “Covid Zero in China Is a Fantasy. Outbreaks spread across the nation in March, leading local governments to impose lockdowns affecting the twenty-five million inhabitants of Shanghai, the economic powerhouse of Shenzhen, and provinces from Hainan in the south to Jilin in the northeast. Yet the emergence of highly infectious coronavirus variants-first Delta beginning in late 2021, and then Omicron in March and April-has strained the zero-COVID policy past the breaking point. provided a wellspring of propaganda for Beijing to declare the superiority of its policies and political system as competitors, most notably the United States, struggled at times to contain the disease. The policy’s initial effectiveness-after the initial Wuhan outbreak killed several thousand Chinese citizens 3 State Council, “What Is the Difference” “Covid-19 Deaths in Wuhan Seem Far Higher than the Official Account,” Economist, May 30, 2021. It is a policy that Chinese president Xi Jinping and his minions have used to fortify China’s aspirations to global leadership and to solidify Xi’s unchallenged political position atop the Chinese Communist Party. ![]() but is widely known as zero COVID-succeeded in keeping the virus at bay for nearly two years. The response-which Beijing calls “dynamic clearing” (动态清零), 2 State Council of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) “动态清零” 和 “零感染” 有何不同-国务院联防联控机制发布会针对疫情防控社会关注答疑解惑 (“What Is the Difference between ‘Dynamic Clearing’ and ‘Zero Infection’-Press Conference of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council Answers Questions and Answers for Social Concerns About Epidemic Prevention and Control”), December 12, 2021. After subduing the initial outbreak, China shut its door to the pandemic by imposing a strict regime of residential lockdowns and business shutdowns, quarantines, mass testing, and stringent border controls. 1 “WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard,” World Health Organization (website). After COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan two years ago, it spread rapidly around the world, infecting hundreds of millions and taking over six million lives.
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