Thread by @djaballh

3 years later, "zero-COVID" policy saw an authoritarian approach to kill a microscopic pathogen, similar in many ways to the saying: firing a cannon to kill a mosquito. a failed policy it seems...
1/9
#China #PublicHealth #SARSCoV2

A population of over 1.4 billion people suffered with no end in sight, especially for those considered as minorities or threats to the Chinese Communist Party, notably the native Uyghurs of the Xinjiang region.
2/9
#China #PublicHealth #SARSCoV2 #Uyghurs

"Zero-COVID" policy has caused a hyper-sterilization of China, which must have abrogated exiting equilibria between humans & pathogens; & sensitized the population to a rainbow of infections beyond #SARSCoV2; with more health issues to be recorded soon.
3/9
#China #PublicHealth

Chinese authorities found themselves in an uncomfortable situation of damned if you do, damned if you don't. On the verge of civil disobedience & growing street protests, they opened the flood gates & suspended the failing policy at once.
4/9
#China #PublicHealth #SARSCoV2

Fearing another pandemic, voices worldwide accused President Xi Jinping of mismanaging the pandemic & projecting unfound public fear, urging some governments to reactivate travel restrictions for travelers inbound from #China.
5/9

China is undergoing what many other countries have experienced when they removed their health restrictions. If only Chinese authorities were amenable to gradual adjustments as a function of improvements on the ground, the outcome would have been much better.
6/9

Is the Chinese situation worrisome? It is not to the extent that many have made it sound more like the end of the world; it is, as expected, a situation with surges in new cases, luckily with Omicron subvariants, spreading throughout the country & other parts of the world.
7/9

The potential danger is the emergence of new & deadly variants driven by this fast viral transmission. Thus far, no new variants have been detected. Omicron & its subvariants remain dominant in the Chinese population.
8/9
#China #PublicHealth #SARSCoV2 #COVID19

As long as China continues to surveil, situation will subside in the coming months with no immediate threat to the rest of the world. It is unfortunate that many countries have rushed to impose new ill-advised health travel restrictions.
9/9
#PublicHealth #SARSCoV2 #COVID19

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