China may have ‘passed the point of no return’ as Covid infections soar

CNBC ^

[GulliverSwift]

BEIJING — Surging Covid infections across mainland China make it harder for the government to achieve zero-Covid without reverting to a harsh lockdown, Macquarie’s Chief China Economist Larry Hu said.

In the last few days, the daily case count has climbed to around or more than 28,000 — near levels seen in April during a stringent lockdown in Shanghai, according to CNBC calculations of Wind Information data. The figures showed the last time mainland China saw only a handful of daily infections was in June, shortly after Shanghai eased its restrictions.

The latest Covid wave has hit the southern city of Guangzhou, the capital city of Beijing and many central parts of China — prompting local officials to tighten restrictions on business and social activity this month.

“China might have already passed the point of no return, as it’s unlikely to achieve zero Covid again without another Shanghai-style hard lockdown,” Hu said in a report Tuesday. “What policymakers could do now is to slow the spread of virus, i.e. flatten the curve, by tightening the Covid controls for the time being.”

[GulliverSwift]

Yes it really doesn’t make sense. Even the Democrats in the United States aren’t going for the lockdowns.

China is destroying itself for reasons that are completely unclear.

[palmer]

really does counter the idea that the virus was created as a Chinese bioweapon

Your assumptions seems to be that communism is monolithic and rational. The communists are certainly capable of building a bioweapon with our tax dollars. Could have been released accidentally. Could ahve been released by competing communist elements. Mindless overreaction by local authorities is also another communist speciality along with authoritarian rule to force stupid policies on the subjects.

My favorite conspiracy theory is that it was released by CIA assets inside the Wuhan lab. Prove me wrong.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

--- "They're destroying their economy even as the rest of the world has moved on from covid scares. Very strange behavior."

Seems a very sensible behavior from the perspective of 1) internal political repression so useful to the party elite, and 2) external imagery for the world press to insist that Covid is a "thing." The game is to convince world economies to further "lock down," meaning competing nations screw over their own economies because FEAR!!!

China? 15,860 deaths in three years in a population of over a billion.

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/china

So the amount of BS here is no anomaly. It is a manipulation. The Chicoms want to scare the nations of the world into hamstringing their economies, because China is the world's leading supplier of masks and tests and more,

Here's a little reading: "Ever since entering the China market in the 1980s, Pfizer has been committed to contributing to both the economic development of China and the health of Chinese citizens. We have been continuously offering a broad innovative product portfolio and actively collaborating with health service providers, academia and governments to support the rapid growth of healthcare in China. Our unique competitive advantages enable us to better realize our mission: Working together for a healthier China."

Source: https://www.pfizer.com.cn/pfizer-china/index_en.html

[GulliverSwift]

But the rest of the world is not going along with China. So it seems like a very obviously ineffective strategy that you are imputing to them.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

The “event” is a moving target, so things will change. Consider the current calls for masks and injection mandates to attend schools and universities, on the one hand, and the “new” calls for pandemic-sized measles and RSV, which might also be accompanied by the next round of lock down calls. Time will tell.

[353FMG]

China reaps what it sowed.

Why is my sympathy violin quiet?

[353FMG]

Send Fauci.

[Palio di Siena]

We’re coming up on the three year anniversary of “two weeks”

[vetvetdoug]

The best way to get through this epidemic is let the virus take its toll and let natural immunity throughout the population take its natural route. Concentrate on therapies to allow one to survive the infection. If the virus is still affecting the population in a couple of years, then roll out a vaccine that has proved to be safe and effective against the mutating Wuhan Virus.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Xi and hence the CCP decreed Zero Covid, and cannot back down.

[GingisK]

...harder for the government to achieve zero-Covid...

China's problem was establishing a useless and unattainable goal.

[GingisK]

China is destroying itself for reasons that are completely unclear.

It all about "saving face". They started the practice out of fear of the virus. Now they continue out of fear of looking foolish.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Bodies!!!

[SaveFerris]

Yeah send Fauci permanently

3 years = 2 weeks apparently

[IrishBrigade]

‘They are groundhogs, scared of their shadows.’

yet I keep reading posts in this very forum about how much smarter Orientals are than anyone else in the world...

[ronnie raygun]

Lockdown of dissidents in the name of covid

[ifinnegan]

I think there might be a worse virus they created that they’re worried about.

They know about it, we don’t.

[GulliverSwift]

Why not? That’s the part I don’t get.

It seems obvious to every other country as far as I am aware. It wouldn’t make them look bad.

[Tijeras_Slim]

That’s the inevitable choice by Communist leaders when it’s apparent their policies don’t work. Back down or apply limitless force. Stalin, once he consolidated power within the party, could apply that force anywhere on anyone. Xi is in a similar position, but in even more minute and daily control of the Chinese by means of technology.

[SaveFerris]

Probably