A former chief at the Chinese Center of Disease Control and Prevention, Zeng Guang said coexisting with the virus should become a long term goal. He said on Weibo, a Twitter-like Chinese platform. Thus, he is confident that Chinese are walking in the path of covid coexistence.
Omicron, the new variant, is unstoppable, said Michael Osterholm, an American epidemiologist. In this case, many foreign experts start to question the progress of China’s zero-covid policy as lockdowns have disrupted business. Can the zero policy against the highly transmissible Omicron variant?
Answering yes, would manipulate the real data. On March 9th more than 400 Chinese suffered the symptoms. The data shows clusters appear in most of China’s provinces. Analysts have majorly argued that China’s health system is not ready to tackle the large wave. Apparently, its vaccine protection is too limited against Omicron.
Dr. Osterholm predicts that China will suffer like Hong Kong, if zero-covid does not change its strategy.
China’s health experts expect to come up with a new approach to tackle Omicron as zero-covid does not seem to be as it is.Liang Wannian, top notch Chinese epidemiologist, spoke openly to the media that zero now means something else. Zero is a dynamic zero, Dr. Wannian said. Therefore, the zero policy means zero tolerance for the infections.
Furthermore, this change of perspective could lead to a virus coexistence. It means China urges to create better MRNA vaccines or otherwise it must depend on foreign jabs. Zhang Wenhong, a respected doctor running Shanghai’s covid response said, it has been a bumpy road for all scientists to balance economy and infections.
Questioning zero-covid policy means questioning China’s biggest pride in handling the pandemic. Politicians continue to reassess the death growth and economic damage. So far in the practice of zero-covid policy, the nation’s attitude changes significantly.
