Thread: Underreported but potentially huge news on #China's anti-Covid measures: Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist of China's CDC, released a lengthy post Monday that is largely seen as a strong hint that China is reconsidering its #ZeroCovid policy. Here's what he said.
He noted that both Chinese & Western scientists have much in consensus, including that patients infected by #OmicronVariant are less likely to become critically ill or die, the consensus leads him to believe that Covid-policies of China and other countries will one day "merge"./2
When discussing the timing for adjustment of China's Zero-Covid measures, Zeng said it "will not remain forever", and co-existing with the virus is a long-term goal. Though he made clear that China is in no hurry to "open its doors", especially during the traditional flu /3
season of early spring, he said China should observe others' experiences with a cool mind and modest attitude. He concludes by saying "In the near future at an appropriate timing, China will surely present its version of the roadmap for co-existing with the virus."/4
In his mind, China's opening policy will be "one that is flexible yet manageable, one that benefits from China's whole-of-society system yet also learn from others' successes." My two cents: the post is widely considered a strong signal because 1. It offered a rather objective/5
description of the Western approach to Covid, explaining the reasoning behind such approach without dwelling too much on the failures of Western societies. Such side-to-side comparisons of the two approaches have been rare; 2. Zeng is perhaps one of the most authoritative/6
scientific voices in China on anything Covid-19, for him to discuss in length the advantages and risks of the co-existence indicates that policymakers have likely been making such evaluations; 3. There has not been an active discussion/7
over relaxing China's Zero-Covid policy at the moment, so Zeng's comment seems to have come out of nowhere for the public. Inducing such discussion into the public forum itself is a telling sign. Full text (Chinese) here news.ifeng.com/c/8E0BoeBrJbj /End
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