China risking worldhealth

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Further details have not been forthcoming. And this is because the Chinese authorities have never allowed any scientists from the World Health Organisation (WHO), or indeed from any other internationally recognised scientific body, to visit Wuhan and carry out any sort of independent investigation. So even now, a lot is still unknown, and it is likely to remain so because the Chinese authorities have suppressed any information about the whole affair.
Except that no one, not even the mighty Communist Party was able to suppress Covid itself. Chinese tourists and businessmen made sure it was one of their chief exports in the early months of 2020, and very soon the entire world was reeling from its effects. And the rest is history, as they say.
It is probably impossible to calculate exactly all the costs of the Covid-19 pandemic. But any such consideration should certainly take into account the costs associated with everyone who died, their treatment and the economic loss due to their untimely deaths. Then it should also add in the costs associated with everyone who continues to suffer from the ongoing effects of having contracted the disease; the sufferers from various forms of “Long Covid”. Then we must include the costs of all the research which had to go into preparing all the millions of vaccines which were necessary to safeguard the lives of those who were at risk.
Also, there is the cost of all the health care necessary to help save those who came down with the disease, and to this we should also add all the costs of lost work and production when people had to take time off work due to lockdowns of varying intensity. Some people were able to work from home, it is true, but working from home is not suitable for every job. I mean, how do you work from home if your job is on a production line which produces automobiles? So, all in all, from start to finish, there was a huge amount of expenditure on this problem, and it also led to countless lost opportunities in all walks of life.
Where I live, on the island of Cyprus, many people I know have moved on from the dark days of the pandemic. Somehow we survived Covid-19, and we can be thankful for this. However, there are dark storm clouds on the horizon. This week China reported nearly 60,000 deaths in people who had Covid-19. But wait a moment. Did this article not begin with the Chinese authorities themselves telling us in early December 2022 that China had zero cases of Covid-19? So what in the name of the Chinese Communist Party is going on?
Well unfortunately for us all, it is most unlikely that China ever had zero cases of Covid-19 a few weeks ago. In fact, it is more likely that they have had the same kinds of people falling ill that every other country has had. There is no underlying reason why they should be any different. However, the one way in which they did differ from almost every other country is that in many big cities they had a system of drastic lockdowns whereby if someone tested positive for Covid-19, that person was not allowed to leave their home. And if another person had had contact with that positive person, even if they did not test positive, that person was also not allowed to leave their home. And from various news reports at the time, this kind of repression went on for months at a time. So instead of using modern vaccines and other methods which had proven effective in other countries, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the Chinese authorities were just bottling up the problem in an attempt to make it look outwardly as if everything were under control. This is how they were able to disingenuously tell everyone that China had zero cases.
Now it has to be said that China’s government is well known for its various forms of repression, but this usually finds its main expression in the various fringes of the country, where the populations of Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong are the usual victims. I can only imagine that locking people up in their homes was a new and none too pleasant experience for the inhabitants of modern and wealthy cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen. One day they would be going to work in a modern factory or office, enjoying a modern lifestyle, and the next they were forbidden on pain of arrest to leave their small apartment. And this was enforced by an army of men and women dressed in white Hazmat overalls who had the task of checking that no one was out in the streets when they should not be. These enforcers came to be known as the “Dabai” (literally translated as the “Big Whites”).
As far as those locked down were concerned, everything they needed would have to be delivered to their door, and the only people they could socialise with were those they already lived with. That is, unless someone happened to be visiting them when the ban was imposed. There was a story of a man who had been on a blind date with a woman who came to visit him at his apartment. When his area went into lockdown, that woman had to stay there with him for several days because the authorities would not let her leave. One never knows how a blind date might turn out.
This arrangement of locking whole areas down went on for months on end until people could not take it anymore. The breaking point came in early December 2022 when those people locked down began to rebel and to physically resist. Such was the pent-up anger and frustration, that the “Dabai, Big Whites” could not contain it, and nor could the police who were called in to assist them. And so, the CCP was forced to do something it rarely ever does. It had to back down and give way to popular protest. That is, it had to allow the population to leave their lockdowns and resume normal life. This was an overnight decision, recognising what was already a fait accompli.
This climbdown decision was a surprise for many observers of China. The CCP, and especially their new President for Life, Xi Jinping, hate to be wrong about anything, because if they are wrong and they get found out, then they lose face. And face is the one thing that important people in China can never afford to lose. Except that somehow, President for Life, Xi Jinping, and the CCP appear to have survived this U-Turn thus far. Perhaps it was the speed with which they changed coursed and allowed people to leave their lockdowns? Making this decision with speed might well have allowed the authorities to spin this as if it had been a decisive and wise move on the part of the central government. One can be sure that the right kind of propaganda would have been employed to make sure this message came across clearly.
So much for the government’s official position. But what about the incidences of Covid-19? Now that there are no more lockdowns, how is that working out? Let us recall that we have already stated that it is most unlikely that China ever had zero cases of Covid-19, whether we are talking about a year ago, or a few weeks ago. But the authorities had previously said that this was indeed the case, and that this was due to their wise decision to use a local Chinese made vaccine, and also due to their second wise decision to have this drastic lockdown.
As to the efficacy of the local Chinese made vaccine, many Western governments have examined it and were not impressed that it was up to the task. But as to the lockdown, this had been the mainstay of their fight against Covid-19 for over a year. And now the authorities had abandoned it overnight. And not because they had tested lots of people and found that they were negative. Not at all! They had abandoned it on entirely non-clinical grounds. They had abandoned it because people had violently objected to being locked down for crazy periods of time. And so, one has to ask the question. What comes next? What provision is there for all the people who might have Covid-19, or who might now come down with it? What is to stop it spreading now that the lockdown restraint is removed?
The answer, unfortunately for us all, is probably nothing. If the main vaccine used by the Chinese is not effective enough, then there is probably nothing to stop Covid-19 spreading like wildfire. To recapitulate, this week China reported nearly 60,000 deaths in people who had Covid-19. Various reporters think that the authorities had to give out some information to explain the recent unprecedented surge that was apparent in overcrowded hospitals and packed crematoriums. But is it even accurate?
China had previously stopped reporting data on Covid-19 deaths and infections after abruptly lifting those draconian anti-virus controls in early December, despite there being a surge in infections that had begun in October and had filled hospitals with feverish, wheezing patients. Ever since then, hospitals in Beijing and across the country have been overwhelmed with patients, and funeral homes and crematoriums have struggled to handle the dead. These things demanded an explanation, but this being China with their love of saving face, it is still probable that these numbers underestimate the full extent of the problem.
In fact, this is almost certainly the case, because the National Health Commission announced that the toll of 60,000 deaths included 5,503 deaths due to respiratory failure caused by Covid-19 and 54,435 fatalities from other ailments combined with Covid-19 since December 8th. It said that “those deaths related to Covid-19” which occurred in hospitals. This automatically means that anyone who died at home, for example, would not be included in these numbers.
The WHO and other governments appealed for information after reports by city and provincial governments suggested that as many as hundreds of millions of people in China might have contracted the virus. However, according to National Health Commission official, Jiao Yahui, “Infection numbers now appear to be falling based on a decline in the number of patients visiting fever clinics. The daily number of people going to those clinics peaked at 2.9 million on December 23rd and had fallen by 83% to 477,000 this week. These data show the national emergency peak has passed.”
To which even a casual observer would probably say, “Yes, maybe the peak has passed, that is if the figures are correct.” We have already noted that the official figures can never take account of those people who do not attend a clinic or a hospital. How many millions of people just suffer and die at home and never become part of the National Health Commission’s figures?
“Whether China truly has passed a Covid-19 peak is hard to assess,” said Dr. Dale Bratzler, Chief Covid Officer at the University of Oklahoma. “China quarantined people indoors, there are many people who remain unvaccinated, and these people are vulnerable.”
Dr. Albert Ko, an infectious disease physician and professor of public health at the Yale School of Public Health, also warned that hospitals in China are mostly located in large cities where Covid outbreaks have been reported. There are few such facilities in the more isolated rural areas. “This is the season of the Lunar New Year. People will be traveling home for a week’s holiday, going to the countryside where the population is vulnerable. We’re really worried about what’s going to happen in China as this outbreak moves to the countryside.”
And other people are equally worried about what will happen as this outbreak potentially moves to other countries. As a result of all these reports, the United States, South Korea, Japan, the European Union and several other countries have imposed virus testing and other controls on people arriving from China. Surely this is only reasonable in the light of these alarming figures. And this is especially so as we recall how those Chinese tourists spread Covid-19 the first time round some three years ago. However, rather discouragingly, the Chinese government has taken offence at this step. It retaliated a few days later, suspending the issue of any new visas to travellers from South Korea or Japan. Personally, I cannot imagine why anyone from the United States, South Korea or Japan would even want to go there and risk coming into contact with another full-blown and uncontrolled pandemic, but there it is. In any case, this is an obvious power play as the Chinese didn’t take any measures against any applicants from the United States.
However, it gives the impression that the Chinese are still turning a blind eye to the serious ramifications of another potential pandemic. The Director-General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, generally gets on with the Chinese. In fact, he was criticised for being too accommodating to them in 2020. However, this time round he has apparently been pleading for up-to-date information on their pandemic. Based on previous experience, he is unlikely to obtain it.
However, this renewed reluctance to help the WHO and others is highly irresponsible. Just so they can “save face” the Chinese appear to be willing to risk plunging everyone else back into a second round of Covid-19. Perhaps they are sitting there with their fingers crossed in Beijing, hoping that it won’t happen? But who really wants to take that risk? It is hard to imagine that anyone would. After all, we can remember the deaths, the costs and the sheer inconvenience of the last time.
So then, this begs the following question. What are other countries’ governments going to do about this? Back in 2020 the WHO allowed China to avoid opening up to allow an independent enquiry into the pandemic. And various countries went along with this, for example in the way in which they continued to trade with China in spite of her stubbornness. But this time around, surely enough is enough. Just like those Chinese citizens who refused to be locked up in their own homes any longer, the governments of other countries should insist that China changes course and releases the information that others require. And if they won’t do it, then it will be time to get tough.
For example, China is 100% reliant on the import of latest generations microchips. And China consumes a lot of such microchips as they are used in manufacturing almost everything these days. So then, maybe the main producers of these chips, principally the United States and Taiwan, should begin to hold some of them back until there have been some changes in the Chinese attitude. Otherwise, we can all capitulate to China and begin to get ready for a new pandemic. Will the governments of the United States and Taiwan have the courage to take a firm stand on this crucially important issue?`);

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