Thread by @FLAHAULT

1/16 - “When China suddenly scrapped onerous #ZeroCOVID in Dec, the country wasn’t ready for a massive onslaught of cases. Hospitals turned away ambulances, crematoriums burned bodies around the clock, hauled them to warehouses for lack of storage space.”
apnews.com/article/zero-c…

2/16 - “Chinese state media claimed the decision to open up was based on “scientific analysis and shrewd calculation,” and “by no means impulsive.” But in reality, Communist Party ignored repeated efforts by top medical experts to kickstart exit plans until it was too late.”

3/16 -“Instead, the reopening came suddenly at the onset of winter, when the virus spreads most easily. Many older people weren’t vaccinated, pharmacies lacked antivirals, and hospitals didn’t have adequate supplies or staff, leading to hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths.”

4/16 - “For two years, China stood out for its tough but successful controls against the virus, credited with saving millions of lives as other countries struggled with stop-and-start lockdowns.”

5/16 - “But with the emergence of the highly infectious omicron variant in late 2021, many of China’s top medical experts and officials worried #ZeroCOVID was unsustainable.”

6/16 - “In late 2021, China’s leaders began discussing how to lift restrictions. As early as March 2022, top medical experts submitted detailed proposals to prepare for a gradual exit to the State Council, China’s cabinet.”

7/16 -“But discussions were silenced after an outbreak the same month in Shanghai, which prompted Xi Jinping to lock the city down. #ZeroCOVID had become a point of national pride, and Beijing’s crackdown on dissent had made scientists reluctant to speak out agst the party line.”

8/16 - “China was months away from the 20th Party Congress, the country’s most important political meeting in a decade, making reopening politically difficult. So the country stuck to mass testing and quarantining people, even as omicron evaded increasingly draconian controls.”

9/16 - “Experts estimate that many hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps millions, may have died in China’s wave of COVID — far higher than the official toll of under 90,000, but still a much lower death rate than in Western countries.”

10/16 - “However, 200,000 to 300,000 deaths could have been prevented if the country was better vaccinated and stocked with antivirals, according to modeling by the University of Hong Kong and scientist estimates. Some scientists think even more lives could have been saved.”

11/16 -“Anybody who wanted to say something that is different from the official narrative was basically just silenced. Pub health experts split into camps. Those who thought #ZeroCOVID unsustainable fell silent. Others kept vocally advocating for it as a way to defeat the virus.”

12/16 - “Yet omicron kept spreading. As the congress approached, authorities began hiding cases and resorting to secret lockdowns and quarantines. Some village officials deliberately underreported the number of #COVID19 cases to give the sense that the virus was under control.”

13/16 - “Along with the lobbying, pressure to reopen came from outbreaks flaring up across the country. A Nov. 5 internal notice issued by Beijing health authorities and obtained by the AP called the virus situation “severe.”On Nov. 10, Xi ordered adjustments.”

14/16 - “In late November 2022, public frustration boiled over. A deadly apartment fire in Xinjiang region sparked nationwide protests over locked doors. Some called on Xi to resign, the most direct challenge to the Communist Party’s power since pro-democracy protests in 1989.”

15/16 - “In just six weeks, about 80% of the country was infected — more than a billion people, the China CDC later estimated. But even as deaths mounted, authorities ordered state media to deflect criticism over China’s sudden reopening.”

16/16 - “Make a big propaganda push. Counter the false claims leveled by the United States and the West that we were ‘forced to open’ and ‘hadn’t prepared,’ according to a leaked directive obtained by a former state media journalist and posted online.”
chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/691232…