[applecore]

What does China know about COVID-19 that the rest of us do not?

Why put in place such a severe policy of forced internment, in response to very few cases, when cheap and plentiful vaccines are available?

(Never mind that mRNA vaccines have never been approved for use in China, which is mind-boggling, given that they're proven to be safe and effective for preventing serious illness or death from COVID-19.)

[raziel2701]

In my opinion the reason is political, that is, I think zero-covid policy is a form of citizen control to prevent protests/insurrection against the accumulation of power by Xi, but also against the economic crumbling surrounding the collapse of their real estate market.

[uses]

This episode of an excellent podcast about Xi covers the Covid response really well

https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2022/09/28/8-the-great-he...

[solardev]

As someone who doesn't have the time or patience to listen to a 42m podcast, is there a summary or transcript available somewhere?

[DantesKite]

What a fantastic series. I know what I’m listening to now. Thanks!

[rarecoil]

If you didn’t have any faith in the mechanisms you had to mitigate COVID-19 pharmaceutically, you would act in much the same manner.

Sinovac may just not be that good over time, or maybe it’s just a pride thing in which we have a political leader staking heroic, superhuman claims on a Zero-COVID strategy.

[type-r]

I mean, Sweden was going free-for-all before any vaccines even existed and seemed to do OK.

[lmm]

Many western countries adopted gratuitously strict lockdown policies that did more harm than good. China just took it a little further than most.

[atty]

I think there are many factors. First, the Chinese healthcare system is much smaller than western healthcare systems. Combine that with a much larger population and a pandemic and you end up in a bad situation really fast. Secondly, they’ve refused the mRNA vaccines, which are significantly more effective than their home grown vaccine. Third, and possibly most importantly, Xi et al both inflated the danger of Covid in their communications to the public, and made zero Covid a point of national and personal pride for Xi. He would lose face if they turned back now.