What’s crazy is this idea that just because the rest of the world has given up on stopping Covid, that China should just let it rip. That would be devastating to China, why would they do that? Even if you don’t care about the death and disability, it doesn’t make economic sense. Temporary targeted lockdowns are less damaging to the Chinese economy in both the short and long term than rampant death and disability.
To let people get on with life.
The people of the world overwhelmingly voted to get back to life even though COVID hasn't gone away.
China's people want to do the same, but Xi doesn't care, that's the only reason this policy still exists.
It comes down to not giving a shit about what your citizens want.
But people in China are getting on with life. Lockdowns are the exception, not the rule.
You’re also ignoring the millions of people that would die or become disabled. That’s not “getting on with life”, that’s the opposite.
> The people of the world overwhelmingly voted to get back to life even though COVID hasn't gone away.
No they didn’t. Those were decisions governments made, there was no vote. They were also decisions made after Covid became endemic in those countries. The consequences for China to let it rip when hardly anybody in China has had Covid are entirely different to the consequences for other countries to let it rip when it’s already endemic. China isn’t in that position so why would they make decisions as if they were when the consequences are so different?
> China's people want to do the same
How have you determined that?
These people have a negative impact on the economy.
Do you have a citation for that? There’s a big jump in mortality at age 50+, but that’s not the same thing as “the vast majority are bedridden people on their last legs”.
Also, death is only part of the problem. Long Covid affects people of all ages. A typical twenty-something factory worker might not die of Covid, but that doesn’t mean long Covid can’t make them economically inactive.
So what's the criterion for an exit from Zero COVID?
[1] and China is at around 90% vaccination. They might not be good vaccinations, though. But assume, for the sake of the argument, it had the population vaccinated as well as possible.
Majority are 80+ and will disproportionately by the more sickly of those.
Don't have good enough data on long covid to discuss it.
How much does a life cost? In the rest of the world that basically failed to contain the virus, it wasn't a question to begin with, since lockdowns didn't really work. China was somewhat successful in its lockdowns because it had ways to enforce the admittedly draconian measures -- so, how much does a life cost?
About $3500: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities
Used to be about $100 a couple of decades ago, but the low hanging fruit has been mostly picked by good people.
Are their vaccines as effective? New variants?
Their own vaccine didn't work with the newer variants, RNA stuff worked.
It was too late to undo the lobbying they did in the first place. Now lockdowns are their only option to stop a pandemic. On the other hand the lockdowns are so strict that people are dying because of them (no food, medicine, etc. Doors physically welded shut)