[tyng]

I'm in the lockdown in Shanghai, feel free to ask me any questions. Things you read on the internet is mostly true (but may be exaggerated):

Life: Yes we can only buy food through WeChat groups to organise wholesale deliveries (2000 eggs, 200 cabbages minimum order) on hiked prices, but it's easier than you might think; No one has died from starvation (yet), but there had been a few cases of death due to not getting medical help in time; The city's resources are stretched - it's a city with 25m population.

Work: I'm still working 12 hour days online (we're a design & project management firm). I get to wake up 10 minutes before a morning meeting and be in my pajamas the whole day.

So on a personal level, life isn't that miserable. But it's definitely a very difficult time to the elderly and the ill.

Will I (or anyone in my shoes) leave China permanently because of this? I guess not, even though I have the means to do it. There are harder problems to solve in life than feeling terrified by a lockdown.

[oneoff786]

What about poor people or people not on WeChat? I’m inclined to guess that your remote job isn’t representative of many people in the city. The videos of people moaning and screaming from their balconies at night seem… shocking?

[tyng]

Absolutely, I don't represent everyone. I'm sure there are people losing their income because they cannot go to work. The government - which has enforced the lockdown, should definitely do a better job in caring for the individuals who are the most affected, no doubt in that.

[GekkePrutser]

I don't think anyone in China is not on WeChat. Life seems to be pretty impossible without it even without covid. Unlike the name implies it's not just a chat app. It's an everything app. A bit like Google's level of ubuquity but even more. Payments, ridesharing, shopping.. I heard you can even do your government business on it.

Anyway this is just what I've read of course. Never visited China and I'm never going to.

[rdtwo]

What about parents with kids? Everyone stuck doing virtual school and work in tiny apartments?

[tyng]

Schools are closed, and for good reasons. If I'm the parent I wouldn't want my kids to get COVID. The gospel of online education may be coming true? Jokes aside, it's not as miserable as many people may think.

[spookthesunset]

> If I'm the parent I wouldn't want my kids to get COVID

The risks of missing education, physical activity and socialization are far greater for children than Covid. We have two years of data to show this.

[JaimeThompson]

Limiting the analysis to just the possible impact on children without taking into account the impact on the complex interconnected system that is modern society might not be the best way to analyze this.

[tyng]

It's not a permanent lockdown... just for a few weeks (so far)

[spookthesunset]

Just Two Weeks!!

It requires a lot of privilege and disconnect from the average person to support a lockdown two years into this.

[tyng]

Perhaps after two months I will think differently :D

[GekkePrutser]

Well, unlike the previous poster I do think 2 weeks is not that much. Most lockdowns here in Europe have been longer than that.

The difference is that lockdowns here were a lot less strict. It was still possible to go to the shops for example, and people in critical supply chains (e.g. food, medical) could still work. Precisely to avoid this kind of issue where people are running out of food.

[rdtwo]

I’ve found it super tough to do online school with a small child. For the under 10 kids they need a lot of supervision and the online school becomes your day job. So if both parents are trapped at home trying to work it’s hell

[weezin]

Do people feel that the lockdown is justified? I saw the start of a paywalled WSJ article saying that there are 130k reported cases and no deaths? I don't believe them on the deaths part but if thats the information from the government how do people justify a lockdown?

[voisin]

A lot of your commentary is about lockdown not being too bad, but what are your thoughts on the rationale for the lockdown when Omicron is relatively less dangerous? Do the people in your social network feel the costs are worth it?

[tyng]

There are definitely lots of complains: the consequences on the economy, not able to travel, etc. On a personal level everyone is affected, but is the lockdown worth it? On a country level I think it's understandable. Shanghai is a city of 25m population and it has one of the best medical system in China, if COVID cannot be contained in Shanghai then it'll be a nightmare to spread to other cities, towns and villages, where basic medical care is still not readily available. Shanghai is also the economic and financial centre of China, locking it down definitely comes at a great cost to the country, so I don't think the government has made this decision lightly. If Omicron is really like a cold/flu then no it's not worth it, but do we know this for sure?

[Ancapistani]

> If Omicron is really like a cold/flu then no it's not worth it, but do we know this for sure?

Well... look at the rest of the world.

I caught Delta when it burned through the American South last September. Omicron overtook Delta in January 2022 in the US, and since then the US has seen ~25m confirmed cases.

If you don't know the effects of Omicron "for sure" with a sample size of 25,000,000 cases... when will you?

FWIW, while Omicron is statistically significantly milder than previous variants, I don't think it's "like a cold/flu". I also don't think it's anywhere near bad enough to justify locking down a city.

When I had Delta, I had about three days where I was miserable and basically useless followed by a week of being very tired and another week or so of feeling like I was recovering from the flu. I'm 38, overweight, a non-smoker, and the only relevant medical condition I have is obstructive sleep apnea.

If I had to characterize my experience in "like the flu" terms, I would say that Delta was about 2-3x as bad as the worst flu I've ever had. There were three mornings where I woke up feeling like I couldn't breathe. That was scary, but a few minutes in a hot shower was sufficient to break it up enough that I didn't feel like I needed medical attention.

About a week after those initial intense symptoms, I was testing negative and had no respiratory issues but was still very tired overall. I called my doctor and asked for an inhaled steroid to speed things along a bit so I could be productive. Other than that, and guaifenesin that I took when my symptoms began, there was no need for medical intervention at all.

Everything I read tells me that Omicron's symptoms are substantially less pronounced than Delta's.

[itronitron]

What would you estimate to be the Covid vaccination rates in Shanghai?

In many European and American cities the consensus of many people seems to be that Covid 'is over', likely due to high vaccination rates and those that have recovered.

[tyng]

I don't have the big picture data but all the people I know (locals and expats) have been vaccinated. China and the Western world are taking different approaches to COVID, I don't believe in anything said from either side, there is simply not enough scientific and trustworthy data, only time will tell which approach is better.

[tremon]

the consensus of many people seems to be that Covid 'is over'

Personally, I'll reserve my judgement on that until we're past the normal autumn flu/cold wave. Cases declined last year in the summer too.

[itronitron]

I agree. Anecdotally, a friend of mine's workplace which canceled WFH a few months ago has had many people out sick with Covid over the past three weeks (more than the entire previous year), but luckily none have them have needed to be hospitalized.

[pempem]

The problem gets further pushed to the individual to navigate, without any real support

[sudosysgen]

We had almost the same statistic here.

[GekkePrutser]

Except this year severe cases were already manageable by the health system in the middle of winter. That's the difference.

[3qz]

> life isn't that miserable

> I'm still working 12 hour days online

> we can only buy food through WeChat

This sounds horrible. You don’t have to live like this you know.

[tyng]

I work 12 hour days no matter where I am :D

[3qz]

I’m sorry

[tsol]

You're on HN I would think it's not at all uncommon to work that many hours a day

[revscat]

This is unhelpful.

[3qz]

Yes it is helpful. He’s showing signs of learned helplessness and needs to wake up.

[tyng]

I appreciate the thought, life is a matter of choices

[3qz]

What would happen if you worked 8 hours a day?

[tyng]

I don't know, work never leaves my mind even when I'm not working