As I’ve said for the last year (e.g. “When Will China Re-Open Air Travel? Probably Not For A Year”), China would maintain its strict Zero Covid policies until after the 20th People’s Congress. President Xi Jinping couldn’t take risks before securing an unprecedented third term and consolidating power. But once that happened, things would likely ease.
Nothing has changed in China – they still aren’t using Western vaccines, the vast majority of the population remains immunologically naive – except for Xi having broken with precedent to extend his time in office, while vanquishing rival power centers.
Yet Covid protocols are relaxing. For instance,
- Hotel quarantine dropped from 7 days to 5
- Airlines will no longer be penalized for bringing a Covid case into the country
- Test once instead of twice within 48 hours of arrival
This, of course, was not sustainable:
Nucleic Acid Testing 'Now Accounts for 1.3% of China’s GDP' https://t.co/sFw8zdNdk1
— That's Shanghai (@ThatsShanghai) November 7, 2022
Even as China further relaxes restrictions I’m not likely going back.
Very unlikely I’ll return either even though I have a dear friend who lives in Shanghai. Shame.
Since they don’t use Western vaccines does that mean the rest of the world can expect another pandemic?
Democrats wish they had the control and power like the Chinese government.
You mean Republicans, right?
After all, Democrats aren’t the ones trying to ban reproductive freedoms, or the ones trying to take over the government with an insurrection instead of respecting democratic norms.
What exactly would “using western vaccines” do? Considering they’ve been an abject failure, I see little point.
Why should China use Western vaccines? What makes you qualified to opine on vaccines Gary? Your PHD in molecular biology? Or do you have one in vaccinology. Americans like you are exactly what non-Americans think of when we think of boorish, racist, ignorant Americans with loud opinions.
The causality between Xi securing power and the relaxing of COVID restrictions is clear to the most casual observer. And, framing the causality in this way is NOT a shameless baiting of the mob to click and offer tripe comments. Not in the least.
For the record, senator-elect JD Vance of Ohio gave an interview in which he likened the US to the late republic era of ancient Rome, stated that democracy doesn’t work, and said that the US should have an authoritarian leader. There are roughly three dozen GOP members of Congress calling for a constitutional convention to do what Vance has suggested.
Space- are you referring to the murder of children – is that the “freedom you are talking about? Insurrection? Oh you mean the “peaceful riot”, like the ones in Minneapolis and Portland?
@Cassandra – we know from published data that Chinese vaccines did not work as well as Western ones even against the ancestral strain of the virus (e.g. Sinovac Coronavac reported 51% efficacy in a messy Brazilian trial, see for instance https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2021/01/does-it-matter-that-chinas-sinovac-covid-vaccine-is-only-50-effective/) and that it’s even less effective as the virus as evolved.
Gary. I’m disappointed that this discussion board has turned into politics, and yet at the worst in international politics now. Not that China and especially Xi Jinping don’t deserve criticisms, but since when have you become guru in sinology and medicines. Sinovac is the equivalent of Novavax that is now approved in United States. It is recognized by WHO and CDC as a effective, and it is widely used in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaya, Thailand, Middle East. I have yet to see a vaccine 100% effective on any disease. Clinical Studies aren’t perfect, and there are many circumstances that are not accounted for. As where you came up with 51% efficacy, here is an antidote. People always assume Johnson and Johnson vaccine isn’t as good as Pfizer and Modena. That’s because Pfizer and Moderna conducted their studies mostly prior to the Delta Variants. There are so many variants now that CDC and WHO are tracking, it’s just like FLU now. Covid virus is evolving as nature’s survival of the fittest. The variant that are milder and much more infectious will be the goal of a virus. The perfect virus are the one that lives in you, but doesn’t kill you like herpes, chicken pox, CMS. I’m an infection disease and virologist. I had JNJ shot, with booster JNJ and Pfizer. I still had Covid 5 month ago. Does that mean all my shots didn’t work? It’s complicated, because my opinion that it worked because I had a very mild case, just a sore throat and mild cough for a few days. Some would say it didn’t work. Here is another antidote. All the home Covid tests we have now are only about 60-70 percent accurate. Only PCR blood test is over 90% accurate. Saliva test aren’t used for HIV anymore because it’s proven unreliable.
@Mike – “Sinovac is the equivalent of Novavax that is now approved in United States. ” the data on Sinovac is nothing like the data on Novavax. And if you are ” an infection disease and virologist” then you certainly know that. Regardless, China isn’t using mRNA, they don’t have Paxlovid, etc.
And my point isn’t just about medicine. The virus has already run far more rampant through most of the world, so there’s far more background immunity. China worried about its hospitals being overrun in advance of Xi’s re-election, even if risks were otherwise-manageable. Nothing could be risked before the 20th Peoples Congress. That constraint is now off.
Here’s a great example of how well the “vaccines” work. From Alex Berenson.
“About 85 percent of Australia’s deaths from Covid have come in 2022, the equivalent of almost 200,000 Covid deaths in the United States. Nearly all those people are not just vaccinated but boosted. This week’s report from New South Wales, Australia’s most populated state, shows that 18 out of 22 Covid deaths where vaccine status could be determined occurred in people who had received at least three Covid vaccine doses. Three more deaths took place in people who had received two doses, and one in an unvaccinated person. In two cases vaccine status was unknown.”
Of course, their solution…get another shot. I can’t wait to get me some.
China is still a failure and most people don’t give af about going there. Singapore or Japan for the win
@James N
Knew you would be here with any mention of Covid. Yeah, we should all bow down to Alec Berenson but certainly not you, the Covid expert or I should say the discredited expert!
Except that he’s reporting numbers taken directly from the government’s own data. Again, Rog-the idiot, why don’t you refute the information rather than offer another weak-minded ad hominem. We know the answer, you can’t. At what point will you and Gary admit you fell for a fraud?
@James N
Quoting a single person is all that is needed to prove something? The earth is flat, just ask any flat earther. QED.
https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/numbers-statistics
Depends? Can you prove his statement is incorrect? If not, his data stands. Also, if you access his Substack article, which discusses the information, he provides a link to the data. Easy for anyone to read.
Finally, your link is worthless if it’s an attempt to refute the information provided in the Berenson quote.
@ James N. I agree. Please keep the channel of information flowing. There are those that just don’t know how little they just don’t know (I suspect their information is NOT from reading). Gary usually does fairly reliable research but I do disagree with Gary in what we “know” regarding pharmaceutical company funded trials and published data. We “know” what the pharmaceutical companies, CDC and WHO want us to “know”, it’s their studies and their information . . . and there is no penalty for being wrong on their side.