I'd like to hear from someone in China on why the government still pursues a zero-Covid policy. Is it just face-saving at this point?
An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown
321–330 of 559 posts
Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown
#322As a Chinese, I can say that the situation is worse than it in the article. My brother is a student who lives in a flat and has not eaten for two days and no one has brought basic substances. He can't leave the flat, he turns to his tutor but his tutor is also forced to stay at home (eating instant noodles every day). We are worried about him but there is nothing we can do, if we criticise the government on chinese T…
Terrifying. Is there no private food delivery?
Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown
#323Earlier quoted context omitted.
China also likely lies about their numbers so it's not likely we'd know the real death count. According to their stats, they had covid 4 covid deaths in all of 2021. This puts them at the number 2 best results spot. The issue here being that all the top stats spots for least deaths are from island countries, which china is not.
China is on Earth, not in some other solar system. If their excess deaths per capita were a fraction of the numbers in the West, there would be no way to hide it.
> If their excess deaths per capita were a fraction of the numbers in the West, there would be no way to hide it.
Why not? Taiwan only had 854 covid deaths, or 0.00335%. Hiding that from official statistics doesn't seem too hard.
Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown
#324I am in China too. In Shenzhen. I think the author is very unkind to the Bao An. I am 100% sure they would treat me the same if there is a similar lockdown here, but I imagine they are under a lot of pressure. My hearts go out to them though. I have a dog here in China, and I am very afraid of what will happen to her if an outbreak like this hits my area. And how can you even have a dog if you can't leave a building…
> I am 100% sure they would treat me the same if there is a similar lockdown here I wish you never get to find this out, because I firmly believe you're wrong.
There was one in Shenzhen just last Month, but it was confined to a few region and lifted quite soon.
Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown
#325Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is likely lockdowns achieve very little, only delaying the inevitable surge of cases and deaths for a later date. Also, they lie about their numbers. Locked down population with restructed internet access and no independent media can lose 50% to an epidemy and we'll know nothing.
Lockdowns achieve exactly what they are meant to achieve: they stop the spread of disease. This is mainly aimed at avoiding uncontrolled surges and collapse of the healthcare system and is effective for that. However, indeed, this must be 'step 1' and combined with a broader strategy of vaccination and controlled exposure to the virus otherwise you only end up with an infinite cycle of lockdowns. One issue in China i…
Lockdowns only achieve keeping people in their homes and that's the only meaningful result that can be discerned from them. The claim that they stop disease is 1) not proven 2)not the only way 3) not the best way
Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown
#326Kind of crazy how sentimental and emotional the response is with barely any actual discussion going on about the merits of this on a grand scale. Yes, stories about people's dogs and temporary economic depression are awful. The larger picture is that China by pursuing these policies has stopped millions of deaths, probably tens of millions of cases of long term disabilities, and overall kept the economy going. It's w…
It's true in terms of organisation and discipline I never believed they would be as successful as they were, but they did it. My wife's home town was locked down for a while due to having I think 8 cases of Delta, but after about 2 months the city was open again. The problem is they have bet the whole farm on that strategy, and Omicron is infectious enough that lockdowns even of the kind China has used so far may not…
>This has had the effect that a lot of Chinese people don't trust Covid vaccines, including Sinovac. As a result uptake has been abysmal.
This does not seem to be supported by the data. China's vaccination rate is 88.95%, the 7th highest in the world.
Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown
#327It seems like condos and apartments can easily be turned into prisons. I'm glad I live in a house, even if it is in north america.
I lived in an urban village in China during the 2020 lockdowns and literally overnight the authorities erected 6+ foot high fences around my whole neighborhood. Entry and exit to the newly-minted gated community was funneled through two checkpoints that never existed prior to COVID. Authorities were actively patrolling the streets checking ID and ensuring nobody jumped the fence. If an authoritarian government wants…
I’ve seen pictures of those barriers. I’ve wondered how China was able to source those materials so quickly.
I know China is amazing a manufacturing anything at scale but I can only imagine having the wide deployment of something like chain linked fencing available instead of large barriers.
Did they have a stock of them ready?
Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown
#328This is legitimately confusing to me. Didn’t we learn that:
1) Lockdown do nothing
2) Vaccines are effective
Why are they locking people down? Why aren’t they just vaccinating them all?
Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown
#329It seems like condos and apartments can easily be turned into prisons. I'm glad I live in a house, even if it is in north america.
>100% of all villages had erected strict and high barriers to quarantine their villages off from the rest of the China. https://www.ifpri.org/blog/lockdowns-are-protecting-chinas-r... You may not be locked inside your house but you can still be locked in your village, which may not have food either.
But it's probably easier to get a truckload of food in than it is to deliver groceries to each unit one by one?
Re: An Account of the Shanghai Lockdown
#330Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's setting a pretty high bar for the author, no? They're locked inside their apartment building and can't really go out and start knocking on doors and surveying the population at large - in fact I think that would get them into trouble pretty quickly. So we don't have anything but conjecture and common sense (and various reports, videos posted elsewhere in these comments) to go on. I think it's pretty reasonable…
Given the bartering that seems to be going on, it sounds like the author has good connections with their neighbours, certainly enough to be aware of anyone actually starving - and I don't doubt they'd highlight specific cases in the article if they knew of any. A reasonable assumption is still an assumption, but it may be that there are additional support networks (formal or otherwise) to help those most at risk.
[deleted]